


From this day forward, things will be different

by GalaxyHazard



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies), The Isle of the Lost Series - Melissa de la Cruz
Genre: Asexual Carlos de Vil, Carlos de Vil Needs a Hug, Carlos de Vil is Left on the Isle of the Lost, Carlos de Vil-centric, Child Abuse, Gen, Gender Dysphoria, Homophobic Language, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Trans Carlos de Vil, Transphobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2020-03-12
Packaged: 2020-10-11 15:47:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 39,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20548658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalaxyHazard/pseuds/GalaxyHazard
Summary: Carlos has been alone for as long as he can remember, but when a new student arrives, his life changes suddenly, though for better or worse, he doesn't know yet.*DISCONTINUED, THANKS FOR READING*





	1. Enter Evie

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic! I do hope to update as frequently as possible, however, I am in college and decently busy. This is not beta-read, so if anyone finds any mistakes, please let me know!
> 
> This fic does deal with gender dysphoria and Carlos struggling with being himself, along with other issues.

Carlos Oscar de Vil had been born Carly Olivia de Vil, only daughter of Cruella de Vil on the Isle of the Lost. 

His mother barely addressed him by the name she gave him at birth, instead referring to him as Spots or girl, or other terms instead of Carly. He was okay with that (unless it was ‘girl’. He didn’t want to be reminded constantly that he had been born with the wrong body. He preferred puppy or spots). It made it easier for him to dress in shorts and boys clothes (not that it was that hard to do normally, there really weren’t that many places to grab clothes on the Isle and Carlos wasn’t picky, and unless you could defend yourself, skirts were not the best) and if he was ever asked, tell people his name was Carlos. 

Of course, that didn’t stop the rumors flying around. That Cruella called him a different name if she ever said it, that she called her child a girl instead of calling the young teenager a boy. His name was said mockingly over and over again.

_ “Hey, Carly. Or is it Carlos?” _

_ “Hey, what’s in your pants pretty boy?” _

_ “Only girls are that pretty” _

Out of all the comments, and he’s heard some very bad ones, the people who called him pretty were the ones he hated the most. 

He’s a boy. Boys are not pretty. 

And on the Isle, anyone could wear makeup, he wasn’t the only boy to circle his eyes with eyeliner. Harry Hook certainly didn’t care about that either. Others had full faces of makeup, so it’s not like his thin eyeliner stood out. 

But he still stood out, no matter how hard he tried blending into the background and being forgotten about. His scores were miles above all the other kids, his genius helping him learn almost everything presented to him easily. He recited the periodic table when nervous, he constantly was reading and drawing in his little corner of the class. He was the one that people stole his lunches and made him do his homework and then stuffed him in the lockers when they were done with him. 

He missed days of school, sometimes a week when he failed to please his mother and she left him on the floor or in her wardrobe unable to move very far. On days like that, he did his chores and then dragged himself up the ladder to his tree fort to collapse in the closest thing to a haven he had.

He hated it. 

But he couldn’t change it.

He had no allies, he had no arrangements. 

He was at the bottom of the food chain and everyone knew it.

  
  
  
  


One day there was a new girl in the school.

The information had spread like a wildfire. First whispers, rumors, and then, seeing the girl and the rumors became true. 

They said that she was an actual princess, the daughter of the Evil Queen. Back from her banishment. 

They said that she was gorgeous, that her eyes were large and dark, her skin flawless. Her hair flowed and her outfit was the nicest that anyone had ever seen. 

Personally, Carlos was only a little interested. They don’t get new kids every day. Or every year. But if he never saw her or had a class with her, he didn’t care. If he had been hearing the rumors correctly, she was a year or two older than him, and he didn’t know how smart she was. It was likely though, with how many classes Carlos had skipped just by being smart, that he would share a class with the so-called Princess. 

He did wonder if she could stand up for herself, though only briefly. 

He wondered who would pick on her and if she would try to stand up for herself. 

Would it be Gaston’s kids, Third, and Junior pushing her around and making demeaning remarks about her before shoving her into a locker? 

Or would it be the queen of the area, Mal, Maleficent's daughter, and her ally, Jay, son of Jafar? They would be crueler if they took notice of her. Jay would rob her blind, and Mal would insult her about everything. It didn’t help that Mal had something to do with her banishment ten years ago. She might still even hold a grudge over the original incident. 

It wasn’t his worry though. As long as she didn’t pick on him, he would be fine. Ignoring her, not being ignored by his bullies, and being shoved in lockers. He would live. 

This probably wouldn’t affect him at all. He put it out of his mind and headed towards his first class of the day.

The locker slammed shut, dimming the sound of the insults only a little as he was shrouded in darkness. 

The reaction he had to be shoved in a small dark space wasn’t a good one, years of his mother doing the same to him, except way more deadly with her bear traps and leaving him there for hours, and occasionally days when she forgot about him or when he couldn't get out. Carlos had, however, gotten used to being shoved in a small dark locker, and at this point, he could tell the difference and make sure he didn’t panic too much. 

Jay and Mal had been on a warpath this morning, something that Carlos guessed had to do with the arrival of the new girl. The halls had cleared faster than usual as they stalked through the school. The only reason why they had grabbed Carlos was that he had been coming out of the small library that the school had, just as they were walking by. They had taken him, dragged him through the halls, to reach a section of the school that contained lockers, insulting him all the way. 

Jay had probably stolen his lunch or other items off of him, and the biting remarks about his gender, calling him a girl and by his birth name, even though they probably knew that he went by Carlos. Mal’s voice had added to the abuse, occasionally pinching his cheeks and smiling patronizingly down at him. 

They had picked him up from the floor that they had been dragging him along, and shoved him in a locker before slamming it in his face, leaving him in the darkness.

It spoke to how often that this happened that upon being shoved in the locker, he drew his face back slightly, so it was behind the frame, so the metal door wouldn’t slam into his nose. He quickly learned of this technique after he gained an almost broken nose and a bruised forehead from trying to escape from the locker the first few times that this had happened.

They sprouted a few more insults before leaving him alone in the small space. That was good. That meant that he could leave. Luckily for him, most of the lockers were somewhat broken and nobody used them, so there were few locks on the doors. After all, the locks were useless when half the student population knew how to pick locks and liked to steal. 

So when he shoved the door of the locker as much as possible in his position, he was slightly surprised that it didn’t give away immediately. And then he realized that he had been shoved in there by Mal and Jay, and even if Jay didn’t appear that smart, Mal was, and probably picked out this locker specifically. 

Carlos cursed his luck again and then tried to shove the door away again, meeting resistance once more. 

He couldn’t tell what was blocking his exit, but it was solid. 

He kept rattling the door. 

Distantly, Carlos heard the sound of the bell. This was both a good thing and a bad thing. It was good because it meant that people wouldn’t see this humiliating show, even though it happened almost every day, but at the same time, it meant that he would be here for even longer, as nobody would be walking by and inclined to open the door for him. The teachers would probably wonder briefly and then forget about it. 

He cursed again, now just banging his foot against the locker door and occasionally shouting and pushing against it. He just hoped that somebody let him out before school ended and everyone left for the night. 

By now everyone should be in their class. 

He cursed louder and banged the door louder now, aware that anyone walking by would hear him in the rare silence. 

To his luck, which was rare, someone did hear him. 

He had groaned and tilting forward, creating another bang as he hit his forehead against the door. And then it gave away and he tumbled out, backpack and all onto a person and then onto the school floor. 

Quickly, he shot up and stared at the person who had released him. 

It was a girl with black hair fading to blue. She was standing up and Carlos could immediately tell that she was taller than he was, even without the heels. She was graceful and held herself like she was in charge, though not like Mal did. Mal was brute force, while she was more elegance, though still sure enough to get her way. 

Immediately Carlos realized that she must be the new girl.

She was as pretty as the rumors said she was, delicate in a way that was rare on the isle. She had a nieve air around her as if she wasn’t expecting to find someone in a locker.

Instead of insulting him, she smiled, gently.

“Are you okay?” Her voice was melodic and kinder than any other that Carlos had heard on the aisle before. Maybe the rumors that she was a Princess are true.

Carlos jerked his head up and down in a quick nod, answering her question and still on guard, ready to run in case she decided to shove him back into a locker or attack him. Her smile dimmed a little, the corners of her mouth falling before they tilted up again, and she straightened up even more. 

“I’m Evie, what’s your name?”

Evie. That sounded familiar. Where had he…

Oh.

This was the girl who had forgotten to invite Mal to her sixth birthday party. The once Maleficent had then banished, along with her mother, the Evil Queen. 

Carlos had gotten Beezelbulb at her party as a sidekick. He had quickly released Beezelbulb into the forest in an attempt to save the black cat from becoming part of Cruella’s wardrobe. 

“Carlos de Vil.” Again, his answer was curt and short, no longer than it had to be. He didn’t know what she wanted. He didn’t know her at all and that made her dangerous. Though she didn’t appear to be super frightening, looks could be deceiving. 

She didn’t seem to take offense at his rudeness, instead, she seemed to be thinking something over before nodding to herself. 

“What class do you have right now?”

“Selfishness101”

“Oh, me too! Do you mind showing me where it is?” Was this what she wanted in return for freeing him from the locker? If so, Carlos would gladly take it. He nodded again, and stood up straight and stepped to the side, gesturing down the hall that had been to his back. She continued to smile and he waited until she drew even with him before walking in the direction of Mother Gothel’s classroom. 

When they arrived he tilted his head, gesturing towards the door again, letting Evie take the lead. Hopefully, she would take all the attention and he could sneak in and slide to his seat in the back without being too noticed. Though, nobody would care that he was late. It was practically per course that some students show up late. 

Mother Gothel also had some saying in being fashionably late that he could probably quote at her if needed. 

Luckily for him, his plan worked. Evie walked in first, taking up the classes attention as she introduced herself to Mother Gothel, and Carlos snuck to the back of the class where his usual seat was and nobody paid any attention to him. 

Except for Mal. He could feel her eyes briefly land on him, narrowed in thought before they settled on Evie at the front of the class. He did not envy Evie at all. 

Class passed by slowly as it usually did, and Carlos drew in his notebook and ignored everybody. Mother Gothel had ushered Evie to a seat near the front of the class, and Carlos had pretended not to see the look that the girl had thrown him. Class finished and Carlos busied himself with stuffing his notebook and pencil back into his bag and checked, and yep, Jay had stolen his lunch. Which was unfortunate because Cruella hadn’t allowed him to eat dinner last night, and he hadn’t had any time to eat breakfast that morning, too busy finishing up the homework that he hadn’t had time to complete due to chores. 

He decided that he could still sit in his corner of the cafeteria, and just write in his notebook or finish up more homework. That would work. 

Before he could though, he felt someone looking at him. Glancing up he saw that it was Evie. She was standing by the door, smiling slightly at him. 

“Ready to go to lunch? Do you mind if I sit with you?” She asked the shyest Carlos had seen her yet. He blinked at her question. 

Did he want to sit with her and maybe draw Mal’s attention for sitting with the girl she hated? But at the same time, it couldn’t get worse, could it? So far Evie had done nothing to him, merely let him out of the locker and had asked him where the class was. 

He blinked again before nodding, heading towards her.

She smiled, shyness gone as she seemed to bounce on the spot a little. 

“Let’s go, I’m starving and I packed a special lunch just for today!” She grabbed his wrist, (he flinched a little at that, people grabbing and pulling him was never a good thing, though at least it was at school and not at home) and pulled him in the direction of the cafeteria. Her grip was surprisingly gentle.

The hallway was mostly empty as they walked, most of the kids already eating lunch in the cafeteria or outside or bullying other kids and stealing. After the initial grab and pull maneuver that Evie did to get him out of the class, she released his wrist to walk side by side with him, the height difference even more noticeable to Carlos like this. He couldn’t wait to get his growth spurt, though at this point of time, being fourteen, it likely wasn’t going to happen. 

They reached the doors to the cafeteria and Carlos once again gestured for her to follow him. Slinking along the back wall, they made it to the small table that was in the corner of the room. Nobody else sat there and it was decently dark as any light from the windows on the opposite side of the room barely reached it. It was Carlos’ favorite spot to eat lunch as nobody else wanted to sit at the small table, instead preferring to sit with their allies. 

He glanced at Evie as they sat, hoping that she wasn’t too put out by the seating. She didn’t seem to mind however, sitting down elegantly before pulling out some food that was her lunch. Carlos pulled out his notebook again and resigned himself to the occasional stares thrown their way, curious about the new girl and why she was sitting with him. 

Carlos was happy to sit in silence but apparently, Evie wasn’t. 

“What are you drawing? Don’t you have any lunch?” He could tell that she was just curious, but that didn’t make Carlos want to answer her questions anymore.

“I …,” Should he tell her what he was designing, or just tell her that he likes to design things period. He had already decided to ignore the lunch part, he didn’t want to get into that right now. 

“I like to design… things. Technology. I theorize other things as well.” There. That was short and gave her the information she was looking for that didn’t give everything away. He didn’t want people to know that he was creating a device to break down the barrier. 

Evie just looked more excited. “Oh, that’s so cool! What are you designing now?” Her voice was louder than Carlos appreciated and he winced, glancing around. 

The noise had drawn some attention to their small table and he swallowed, shrinking in on himself. 

Evie seemed to notice luckily and cleared her throat quickly. She leaned forward and spoke again, this time much quieter as she apologized. 

Carlos stared at her in shock. Nobody apologized on this isle. They were raised by villains and nobody said please or thank yous, or sorries. And if someone did apologize, it was never to him. Always to someone bigger and stronger with more clout on the isle, they were the ones that you apologized to. 

He swallowed before continuing, choosing to ignore what would probably be a one-time thing as she probably would stop apologizing once she got used to being around people again. 

“Small things mostly. I can only use what comes from the barges after all, so I don’t exactly get all the supplies that would be useful for building specific things, so that makes planning a little difficult.” It was true. Being small meant that when the barges came in, Carlos couldn’t fight the bigger kids for the items that he needed. Luckily for him, nobody else was interested in the stuff he wanted, so it was more of a challenge to sneak around the other kids who were fighting for the loot. Unluckily for him, not a lot of the items he needed were thrown onto the barges, so he could go months before finding what he needed. It frustrated him to no end, but there was little he could do about it. 

Evie still smiled at him. “That sounds wonderful. You should show me one of your inventions some time.” 

Quickly, Carlos looked back down at his notebook. Did he want to share his inventions with somebody? Evie seemed like she cared and was genuinely interested in what he was doing but at the same time, Carlos couldn’t be sure. So he just shrugged, neutral. Maybe he would at some point, but not immediately. 

Suddenly a fist was slammed down on the table, disrupting the food that Evie had placed on the table. 

Carlos startled and clutched his notebook and pencil to his chest, heart racing as he looked up to stare at the Gaston twins. They looked furious, though they only spared the intense anger a second when they glanced at him before it disappeared when they looked over to Evie. 

Here it was, she was going to get picked on and he could do nothing about it. The Gaston twins were bigger and stronger than him, and if they chose to, could stuff him back into the locker that he had been stuck in all morning. 

“Why are you sitting with this loser?” Gaston Jr. demanded. Carlos widened his eyes in surprise. They liked Evie. No wonder, she was beautiful. And the LeGume family was known for liking beautiful women. Maybe she would be fine then. If they were enthralled with her looks, they probably wouldn’t hurt her, so at most, she needed to watch out for Mal and Jay. Maybe Uma if she strayed into her territory. 

Carlos was slightly relieved. And then he tried to squash that feeling down because this was the isle of the lost and there is no room for friends and kindness here. Even if Evie was too kind for her own good.

“Because I am asking him about the school work that I missed and I heard he’s the best to ask.” Oh, right. They wanted to know why Evie would sit with him. Her answer was pretty good. Carlos was the smartest kid in the school, if not the smartest person on the whole isle. It was a commonly acknowledged fact. The only reason why he was still in school was because Cruella said that skipping a couple of grades was good, but just skipping out of school before he was actually in it was freaky. So he shared the same classes with his sixteen-year-old classmates, making him the shortest and youngest kid in the grade.

Even the Gastons had to acknowledge that, even if they didn’t like it.

“You could have just asked her and left, you don’t have to spend all of lunch over in this small little corner.” He flinched when they misgendered him, it would never stop hurting, but at this point, he was used to it. Besides, Carlos was impressed, the Gaston twins seemed to be thinking today. 

Evie smiled again, her grin the sharpest that Carlos had seen it yet. She hadn’t acknowledged that the twins had misgendered him. “Well, I have a lot to catch up on,” She fluttered her eyelashes, looking coyly up at the twins. Carlos could tell immediately that she was playing with them. “And that can take a bit of time. Think of it this way,” She seemed confident with their attention glued to her like she was in full control.

And Carlos realized that she probably was. 

Carlos himself was no threat to her, she had identified that he was not a danger to her right when they met. He wouldn’t attack her unless she went after him first and she knew it. She also knew that at the moment she had power over the Gastons, who after Mal and Jay, and Uma and Harry, where probably some of the most dangerous in the school. They wouldn’t hesitate to beat Carlos up if she asked.

And the Gastons probably wouldn’t attack her, especially with her fluttering her eyes at them and looking at the two like they hung the stars. They thrived on her positive attention and would probably not lift a finger to change it. 

“The faster Carlos catches me up to the current schedule, the sooner I don’t need to eat lunch with him. And for him to do that as fast as possible, we need the fewest interruptions possible.” Carlos would be more offended if he hadn’t already picked out that she was playing them. And the fact that he bet that Evie was pretty smart, instantly picking apart the dynamics of the school and playing people to her expectations. She probably didn’t need his help at all. 

The twins nodded, dejected, but playing right into her hands. They waved sadly and left with one more nasty glare and a bitter insult on their lips about Carlos’ gender. He watched as they walked away, almost afraid of what Evie would say. 

While they weren’t friends, and Carlos didn’t trust her completely yet, she had been pretty nice. He didn’t want her to turn around and be disgusted by who he was. It would hurt probably a little bit more than the common insults, and then he would go back to sitting at the table alone, or maybe needing to find a new spot if Evie deemed this place ‘hers’. She could control the Gaston twins, as she had just shown, and so she could get them to remove Carlos from his small dark corner if she wished it so. 

“So,” Her voice was casual, though he could sense the curiosity beneath it. “Do you prefer Carlos and he/him?” He turned back to her, shocked that she would even ask. Nobody had before. When he looked at her face though, he saw no judgment. Just curiosity and a gentle smile. He bit his lip, before nodding.

“Carlos and I prefer male pronouns.”

Her smile grew, and she nodded back. 

Carlos let his lips tilt-up, returning her gesture with one of his own, albeit smaller. Maybe he could end up trusting Evie and become friends with her.


	2. Blood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh, this chapter is pretty bloody so like, be warned. More dysphoria. I’ll put the actual warning and a quick summary at the end so people can check that out. This is probably one of the darker chapters, and there’s literally no dialogue. It’s literally just over 3k of hurt. It’s mostly worldbuilding/plot building I guess? Not my favorite, but I felt like this was important to building up Carlos' character.
> 
> Anyway, I’m already working on the next one, where things will get a bit lighter, and I’m hoping that Mal and Jay will actually have some lines! 
> 
> Thanks for all the hits, kudos, and comments! They make my day so much better! I'm hoping to update this once a week, probably Fridays or on the weekend! You can find me at https://galaxybrained.tumblr.com/ as GalaxyHazard, same as here!
> 
> And as always, please let me know if there are any mistakes that I should correct!

From that day forward, Evie and Carlos did a lot together.

They walked to school together, as it turns out that they lived across the street from each other. Carlos occasionally would dart across the street to the castle that Evie and her mom lived in to do their homework or gossip together. The Evil Queen didn’t seem to mind Carlos coming over, not smiling exactly, but nodding her head at him. She seemed to appreciate the fact that they walked together, as safety in numbers was important for them. She also seemed to pick up on the fact that Carlos wasn’t interested in her daughter.

Evie was invited into Carlos’ treehouse.

She was the first one to be invited into the treehouse, the first one to see his inventions. She didn’t get most of them, sure, as machines weren’t exactly her expertise, that was more potions, but she did listen to him babble on like he had never been able to before. She also, on occasion, brought some stuff for a potion set up so they could work together in his treehouse. Then it would be his turn to listen to her talk about her potions.

Not that he minded at all. It was nice to finally be able to spend some time with someone who referred to him as Carlos, who didn’t have any malicious intent towards him. She also helped him with his eyeliner, teaching him how to do it perfectly.

He knew that she didn’t have it easy with her mother, that the Evil Queen expected perfection from her daughter at all times. He knew that the lunch she brought on the first day was an exception, not the usual. He knew that she would skip meals if she thought that she was getting too fat. He knew that she would obsessively fix her makeup if she thought it was off, or if someone pointed it out to her.

Carlos never mentioned any of her worries to Evie. He never told her that she was too fat (if anything she was too skinny). He never told her that her makeup was off (it never was, it looked perfect to him at all times). Sometimes if Carlos sneaked into her room in the mornings before school started, he saw her without makeup, and after the first couple of times she stopped panicking about Carlos seeing her without any makeup, and for that, Carlos was grateful of. She was his best friend, or as close as a friend could get on the isle.

Carlos was also pretty sure that she knew that Cruella treated Carlos like he was a slave. She had seen the bruises and scratches, even if Carlos tried to hide them and his changing figure beneath layers of clothing. She had seen him with black eyes and scratches like nails down his cheeks, that hadn’t been there the day before when they walked back from school. She had heard Cruella shrieking when she arrived at the treehouse before Carlos had.

Evie had said nothing, she had handed him a container with some kind of paste in it and told him it was for the bruises, and another one for the cuts. One day when she found him trying to clean and bandage a longer, deeper scratch on his arm, she gently pulled it away from his shaking form and calmly bandaged it up. On days where they didn’t have school and Carlos had finished his chores and hid in the treehouse, quivering and mute, wary of any touch, Evie would sit with him, and talk about her fashion. She would usually bring along whatever project she was working on at the time, and hand sews what she could, talking calmly the whole time.

Carlos didn’t think he would ever love anyone else as much as he loved Evie. She was a lot like an older sibling that he never had.

  
  


School was slightly better.

The Gaston twins seemed to pick up on the fact that Evie was his friend, and that she would be sticking by his side for now instead of only for a short while. They still left her alone thankfully, weak to a pretty face. It certainly didn’t make them like Carlos more though. He was still a target of their mean words and harsh fists, even if was only when Evie wasn’t with him.

He made sure to stick with Evie as much as possible.

That didn’t stop Mal and Jay, nor Uma and Harry though. Harry would leer at Evie, and make remarks about puppies, as he usually did. Uma generally didn’t care, only ordering Gil to grab Carlos’ or Evie’s lunch a couple of times a week, same as usual. Jay stole only a couple of Evie’s things before she wizened up and only wore minimum amounts of jewelry and kept an eye on it when he was around. The son of Jafar had made a couple of flirty comments in Evie’s direction, but she usually ignored it.

Mal left them alone. Completely.

Carlos was grateful for that. Evie was his only friend, and Mal had been the one to send the girl away in the first place. He didn’t want the purple-haired girl to do it again, not if he could help it. Which, he definitely couldn’t. Mal was unstoppable. The only kids who didn’t listen to her were the ones in Uma’s gang.

Carlos would occasionally look up and see Mal looking at him and Evie, during class or lunch. Those looks had surprisingly little malice in them. She only seemed to glare a bit instead of the full ‘drop dead immediately you peasant’ that she usually gave people and what Carlos was expecting her to give to Evie.

Of course, that only extended to Evie. Carlos was still subjected to being shoved into lockers, or if they were being kind, only pushed into them. He was still insulted in the halls and misgendered. Still had bruises added to the ones that he gained at home, small cuts that appeared on his already scarred skin. He was used to it though, so he didn’t feel too annoyed over it.

  
  


Another change happened almost a year later.

Evie had turned sixteen a month ago, and for a party, the Evil Queen had made an apple pie for the three of them, long haven gotten used to Carlos’ presence around her castle. Evie had also found out that Carlos didn’t know the exact day that he was born, only that he knew what month. Carlos bet that Cruella didn’t even know what day he was born, that she also knew the month, and would eventually mention that he’s a year older. Usually unpleasantly. So she had given him a birthday, April 11th, and they celebrated the date and Carlos’ assumed fourteenth birthday.

It was probably one of the happiest days of Carlos’ life. He and Evie had spent the day in his treehouse, building inventions and finishing potions. Cruella had been at the spa, so she wasn’t there, and neither were Jasper and Horace. Evie had made Carlos a new jacket in his favorite colors. It was leather that was only barely used, dyed white, black, and red. He loved it. Wearing it, his elbows didn’t get scraped as often as they used to when he was pushed down. It had a fur collar, which he’d bury his face in when he was alone and panicking and reciting the periodic table. It felt like the dog tail that he hung on his belt. Something physical to ground himself.

He felt like he was more dangerous wearing it. Not that he was any more dangerous. Maybe he just felt more protected, like Evie was standing by his side whenever he was wearing it.

It didn’t protect him when Cruella threw him into her closet, his ‘bedroom’. His legs weren’t protected, mostly because Carlos preferred shorts over any padded pants. His gut had been hurting all day. He had been feeling slightly dizzy, a strong headache making him feel even more crappy. His dysphoria was kicking his ass as well.

In short, today was crappy even before his leg got caught in a trap. He cried out as the metal sunk into his flesh, nothing new but it still hurt. The door slammed shut behind him and he heard Cruella lock it. He was left alone in the dark, sore and hurting and terrified.

This time, he had been still cleaning up Hell Hall when she had arrived, already drunk. She glared at him before grabbing more alcohol from her cupboard. He had finished the dishes and had then tried to sneak out the backdoor to his treehouse. It hadn’t worked.

Cruella had heard him and stormed into the kitchen, grabbing him by his hair, tugging on the multicolored strands so it tugged at his scalp. Cruella had then dragged him further into the house, screeching at how slow ‘she’ was and how worthless ‘she’ was. Carlos’ heart hurt every time Cruella misgendered him, but he knew that she would never change that, as she didn’t care enough about him to call him by his actual gender. She had hauled him up the stairs to her wardrobe before tossing him inside.

And that’s where he was left now.

All alone in the dark, hurting and bleeding.

He only allowed himself to sob for a minute before gathering his wits together. He needed to get out of here. He knew where all the other traps were, he had counted out the steps and knew how to get to his bed, where he had fabric to wrap around his new wound and limp to his treehouse.

He took a deep breath and leaned forward to pry the trap open. His head snapped back a second later as the trap sprung open, another gush of warm blood flowing over his already dirtied fingers. He sucked in air sharply through his teeth, trying to bite back the whimpers that wanted to breakthrough. Cruella didn’t like it when he was loud unless she was beating him.

The crawl through his ‘room’ felt like it took hours. Flashes of extreme heat and intense cold racked his body with uncontrollable shivers, his head swimming with every movement forward he made. His harsh breaths echoed in the small space, filling his ears with his ragged and pained sounds.

At one point Carlos almost put his right hand into another trap, lowering it until it was only an inch or two before it would spring the trap before he realized and his eyes snapped open in horror as he froze. He had pulled his hand back and tried to stay more conscious of his surroundings after that, stopping whenever his eyes started to drift shut and darkness covered the edges of his vision, concealing the traps even more in the dark.

He made it through, eventually. Sore and tired and still bleeding, the flashes of hot and cold coming faster and faster, he collapsed on his mattress. He lay there, panting, breathing ragged as he tried to control the pain.

He passed out.

  
  


When Carlos came to, he didn’t know how long he’d been out.

The lighting hadn’t changed, not that he could tell in the closet, it was dark, no matter the time of day. Struggling to sit up, he grabbed the ‘flashlight’ he had put together a while back to help him see in there.

When he shone it on his leg, he almost threw up.

Blood coated his right leg, congealed. It felt numb up until he tried to move it and he crumpled forward as the pain hit him. He lay gasping until the burning waves subsided and he pushed himself up again, gently, cautious of his leg. He tried not to shift it as leaned forward again to take another look with his light. That wasn’t good. He could tell by the amount of blood that he’d lost more than what was healthy, and he knew that the island didn’t have any blood transfusions and that he would be out for a couple of weeks at least.

Fuck.

He’d probably only be able to do his chores before stopping. He probably wouldn’t be able to make it to school. Maybe he’d be able to get Evie to bring him his homework, he knows she probably would. Or at least let him look at her notes.

He didn’t think that he’d be able to make it to his treehouse either. He probably wouldn’t be standing for at least a couple of days. At least he had enough water to last him for a while, stored specifically for this purpose. He also had some material to bind his leg, also because this has happened before. Good thing he was prepared.

Unfortunately, he was prepared because this had happened before. Evil, if that didn’t say something about his life. His teeth were gritted the whole time he wrapped up his leg, probably grinding them down to nothing. He lost consciousness twice before he was finished everything he needed to do, cleaning and bandaging the wound as much as possible, before finally finishing and laying back on his ratty old mattress, panting loudly, his head lolling to the side as continuous waves of heat coursed through him.

This time when he passed out, he was pretty sure he was going to wake up.

  
  


To Carlos’ big relief, he did wake up.

He lay in the dark, just breathing, eyes closed. It was Sunday, so he didn’t have school (not that anyone but Evie would have cared if he skipped), and as a result, he could lie there for a while and relax. He was supposed to meet Evie after lunch when all his chores were completed. She would be waiting in the treehouse. Carlos smiled. He couldn’t wait to see her.

And then he tried to move.

Carlos jolted forward, hovering over his legs as white and black spots danced in front of his eyes, his head swimming and eyes unfocused. He gasped, scream catching in the back of his throat, unable to get past his lips.

Fuck, his leg.

He sat there, breathing in and out in measured breaths, waiting for the waves of pain to subside to a manageable amount. When it eventually did, he sighed and drew in a deep breath that he felt from his stomach, which was still aching (maybe he ate something bad?), and sat up carefully. His leg twinged a little, but not as terrible as it did before. He continued with his even breathing, as he tested moving his leg.

It definitely did hurt, and Carlos did need to stop and take deep breaths when the pain came back with a vengeance, but eventually, he managed to move it around so he could try to stand. He made sure not to put any weight on it as he hauled himself up. It was a challenge, but eventually, he managed, leaning heavily on the side of the wardrobe, slightly unsteady on his one good leg. He didn’t manage to lift injured leg up too far, the trap had closed on his calf and part of his thigh, which means his knee was okay, but stretching his muscles to bend his leg hurt.

Sighing, he decided that it was better that he goes to his treehouse. Yes, it would hurt getting there, and it would take him a while and he’d need to be extremely careful not to run into Cruella, but he thought he could do it. And when Evie arrived this afternoon, he could tell her that he couldn’t walk and make sure that she doesn’t worry about him not showing up too much because she’d know what happened to him. The treehouse also had the advantage that Cruella, Horace, and Jasper couldn’t get up there, so he’d be safe. He’d probably not be able to climb up and down every day to do his chores, but if he did them immediately when he was better, and continued to do them and hide, then his punishment probably wouldn’t be too bad.

He slowly made his way out of Cruella’s wardrobe, leaning most of his weight on the wall. He jumped on his uninjured foot as much as possible, trying to avoid putting any weight on his bad leg. He did mostly succeed at being quiet and somewhat sneaky, though it didn’t sound like Cruella was awake or in the house. Carlos did need to stop a couple of times to breath through the pain, collapsing twice in agony and sitting on the floor, breaths harsh and loud in the silence of Hell Hall.

The stairs were agonizing. He sat on his butt and lowered himself one at a time, his arms trembling from the exercise and halfway down he collapsed, letting a pained noise out before he could muffle it. When he made it to the bottom, he sat there for longer than he was comfortable with, trying to even out his breathing even as his body shook with exhaustion and pain. 

He could do this, he could get out of Hell Hall and he would recover and be fine. Hopefully without a limp, so he could run from any who tried to catch him. 

When he reached the back door, which felt like it took an hour, he felt all sweaty and he knew that his wound, which had congealed overnight, (Carlos could tell by looking outside that he was right that it was morning), had opened on his slow trip. By the time he got to the base of the treehouse, his head was floating in the clouds, and he was swaying with every hop-forward he made. Once outside of the house he had had no walls or posts to lean on and was moving slower than he had been in the beginning.

At this point, Carlos was just moving on auto, his mind set on his destination, everything around his greyed out. All he could think about and see was his goal.

Once at the treehouse, he collapsed on the trunk, leaning heavily against its solid bulk as he tried not to pass out once again. He slid down the tree until he was sitting in the overgrown grass, lying limp against it. Carlos didn’t know how long he had been sitting there, just breathing and trying to make the world stop spinning around him. His body cooled slightly, the sweat drying on his skin the longer he sat there not moving. He felt disgusting, he felt like it was taking his all to not curl up and cry right were he was. That could wait until he was inside the treehouse.

Climbing up felt like it took eons. Carlos would stop and hang from the ladder every step, taking a break and dragging deep breaths through his nose just to get to the next one. He made it though, and he collapsed on the floor on his hands and knees, crying out as his right knee crashed to the floor, sending shocks up to his injuries. He finally allowed himself to make noise, though he still tried to stifle the whimpers as he crawled over to a nest of blankets in the corner that Evie had donated to the treehouse. He didn’t try to stop the tears from falling down his face though, letting them drop to the floor, uncaring about anything but getting to the soft nest. 

When he finally reached it, he didn’t even bother trying to get comfortable. He let his body fall forward and land on the blankets, face first. He lay there, body stretched out behind him on the floor. The hot and cold flashes were back and his whole body was aching. 

Carlos let his eyes slip shut and he gave in to the exhaustion and darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Carlos is misgendered, and Cruella throws him into the closet where he lands in a bear trap, where his right leg is caught. I don't go that deep into detail, but this chapter is basically Carlos suffering from that. Next chapter will be heavier on Carlos' dysphoria, but it should get lighter after that!


	3. The Deal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter, there's an actual conversation! People talk! And plot! Things start happening. 
> 
> In any case, if there are any mistakes for grammar and such, please let me know!

Carlos awakened to someone gently shaking his shoulders and loudly saying his name.

He mumbled something and tried to curl up tighter around the soft object that he was holding, before pain shot through his right leg and he froze, a long, low whine slipping out of his throat. 

Someone was cooing at him, and a hand lay on his shoulder, the touch light and unthreatening. He came back to himself quicker this time.

Carlos lay on his left side, his uninjured leg curled up to his chest, the right stretched out behind him. His face was pressed into a blanket and the rest of his body lying on a wooden floor. He was in the treehouse, his leg aching because of the bear trap and his abdomen throbbing with an unknown pain as well. That meant that the only other one with him was Evie.

Slowly, he uncurled himself a little and opened his eyes to see the bluenette staring down at him with concern in her eyes. Carlos let his lips tilt up in a tired, half-hearted smile. He was glad that the girl was here, that meant that his leg would probably be looked after, and he can ask Evie if she had any advice for his stomach.

Evie matched his smile, though hers looked a little more wobbly.

“Hey,” Carlos’ voice was rough, unused but strained from muffling his sounds of pain for however long. “How’s it going?”

Okay, maybe Carlos shouldn’t be asking Evie that, not with him probably scaring the shit out of her, bleeding all over the place with tear tracks down his face and looking like he had passed out where he had fallen, which to be fair, he had. But he couldn’t help but ask her that, after all, she was like a sister to him and she looked like she was going to cry.

To Carlos’ relief, Evie let out a weak laugh, though it did sound watery.

“It’s going well,” she giggled, obviously trying for his sake. “How about you, C? Got a cut for me to check out?”

All Carlos let out was a weak wheeze, as he tried to laugh with Evie. 

“Yeah, just a tiny one.” 

She smiled, the look fond, less concerned than she had been before she stood up and moved over to the corner where they kept their medical supplies. Carlos heard her sorting through it, grabbing the things that she needed. He closed his eyes again, drifting in the quiet atmosphere of the treehouse. He felt safe and relaxed. Evie started humming in the background, and Carlos, actually feeling safe for the first time since this whole debacle happened, fell back asleep.  


  
  
Carlos woke up to warmth.

He was lying on his back, surrounded by blankets. There was music playing in the background, softly. He could tell someone was in the room with him, and he could hear them moving around. When he opened his eyes, Carlos recognized that he was staring at the wooden boards that made up the ceiling of his treehouse. He tilted his head to the side, and sure enough, Evie was there, working on one of her potions.  


He didn’t want to get up. It was peaceful and warm, and he was with his favorite person, even if she didn’t know he was awake. But he also had probably been sleeping too long, and needed to get up, needed to do something.   


Carlos groaned as he sat up, bringing his hands up to rub at his eyes. He must have made some sort of noise because Evie was at his side in a second.  


“How are you doing?” Well, she certainly wasn’t wasting time.  


Carlos bit his lip, considering the question for a second. How was he feeling? His body was sore, but nothing unmanageable. He frowned as he moved the blankets off his lower body, looking at the bandages wrapped around his right leg. They looked as clean as any bandages on this island were, and he could see no blood coming through them.   


Right now, his leg ached, but while it didn’t outright hurt, it probably would be sore when he moved it.   


He turned back to Evie, letting the corners of his mouth lift in a gentle smile.   


“I’m feeling pretty good. Sore and my leg will probably hurt when I move it, but right now, I’m good.” She beamed back at him, moving forward to swing her arms around his torso, in a loose hug, resting her cheek on top of his bi-colored hair. He leaned into her warm, glad that he at least had her with him.  


“You should rest a bit more, I grabbed some food for us when you were out.” Carlos tried to hide his grimace at that, though with a look at Evie’s face, he could tell that she was puzzled. Carlos was almost always hungry because he never got enough food. The problem was, was that Cruella had also kicked his stomach earlier, and it had been aching the whole time.  


He told Evie that and she nodded in understanding.   


“That’s okay. Just try to eat a little? I would feel better if you did.”  


Carlos must be getting weak. He sighed and nodded minutely, knowing that she had felt the movement. She squeezed a little more, and then stood up, going over to her bag that she had laid down in the opposite corner to Carlos. Rummaging through it, she grabbed two items and walked back over. In her hands, she held an apple, with what appeared to be minimal bruising, and a bottle of what Carlos guessed was water. Evie handed them to him, watching fondly as he took a sip of the water.  


“Thanks.”  


She ruffled his hair, before standing up and going back to her workstation. He appreciated that it meant that she wasn’t there, watching him choking down the apple.   


While he nibbled on the apple and took slow sips of water, he looked outside. It looked like it was evening. Or morning. He couldn’t tell, and he didn’t know how long he had been sleeping. Though, when he took a closer look at the light, and the angle it was shining at, he did realize that it was morning. Which meant that it was Monday, and he slept through the night.   


Though it didn’t look too late in the day, so he didn’t know if Evie was planning on going to school or not. Maybe not if she was determined to stay with him, but he could also try to convince her to go to school just to grab their assignments. If he was just resting here the whole day, he’d be fine. Only they knew of this place, so no one would bother him.   


“Hey, what day is it?”   


Evie glanced back at him, a slight frown crinkled up her eyebrows. “Monday, why?”  


Carlos blinked. So he was right, he had slept through the night. Which wasn’t a bad thing, he felt much better now, but still. It meant that there were things to do because it was the week.   


Nodding his head, agreeing with himself, he looked at Evie again. “Just wondering if you were going to go into school today. Or tomorrow.”   


Evie sighed, before looking at Carlos like he was an idiot.   


For the record, Carlos didn’t think he was an idiot.  


“Not today. Today I’m planning on staying with you, and then I’ll check on you tomorrow morning. If you’re feeling better, I’ll go in then.” Carlos dipped his head. That made sense. Though the gnawing feeling of… well, not quite a guilt, but of something that always arouses when he missed something, something that he deemed important. This time, it was school, and he knew that he could catch up quite easily, but still. He missed something that he deemed important.   
He shook his head. He needed to think of something else.   


Books, he had books that he could read.  


Recently he had fished out an advanced physics book from the barges, and he hadn’t had time to read it, between chores and homework. But he finished all his homework, and he couldn’t do his chores right now, which meant that he was free to read about physics.   


“Hey Evie, could you grab a book for me?”  


  
  
Evie left when it was nearing evening. She had left him some food and water in easy reach and told him to take it easy. He had hummed, and nodded, mostly focused on his new book. It was amazing.   


And then he was alone. He read until he felt like he was going to pass out, the book capturing his whole attention, and then he lay it down beside him, took a drink, and then went to sleep.  


When he woke up, it was to Evie climbing into the treehouse. She had only come to drop off his homework and some food for his dinner, as the Evil Queen wanted her home for dinner so they could discuss how Evie was doing in school. This happened every couple of weeks, where the Evil Queen would question Evie about her progress, and while she was doing that, critiquing Evie’s makeup and her looks.   


Carlos hated those instances because they always came without warning and left Evie even more insecure about her appearance and if she would ever find a Prince. It made Evie not eat enough food for weeks, and she never could focus on schoolwork after because she thought that Prince’s would be more attracted to her looks than her brains.   


Carlos knew that Evie didn’t need a Prince, nor did she need all that makeup on her face to be beautiful. He’s tried to convince her of that multiple times, but so far to no avail.   


They exchanged a few words, Evie too nervous about tonight for her to be relaxed, and then she was on her way. Carlos was sad to see her go, but he still waved and smiled as brightly as he could. He was left with the silence once again, but luckily for him, this time it included homework.   


He looked over the worksheets and everything seemed manageable. He’d need to ask Evie about clarification about one thing for Selfishness 101, but everything else he too got through easily enough. He had finished the worksheets before he went to bed, and resolved to ask Evie about the Selfishness 101 papers tomorrow.   


Yen Sid had given him a couple more worksheets than he usually would have handed out to any student, but that was on par course to what Carlos got in his Weird Science class. He was pretty sure that Yen Sid knew that Carlos had been stealing ingredients and equipment from his classroom for ages, and yet still let it happen because Carlos was a favorite of his.   


It was similar to the deal that he had with Mr.Facilier. He fixed the occasional thing and he was allowed access to the forbidden library. Not that there was a lot of interest there. He read the books, and the most up to date and useful now was the map of the island.   


Surprisingly there was more to the island than just the slums. There was an entire territory aside from the slums, called Nowhere, in which lay the Forbidden Mountain. Carlos had taken a look at the map and decided that he would stick to what he knew, even if most of what he knew was pain and suffering at the hands of Cruella. It was better to face what he knows than to go into the unknown, especially to a place called the Forbidden Mountain.   


  
  
Evie showed up again the next morning, to grab his homework, and smiled weakly at him. She barely said more than a few words to him, a sure sign that the Evil Queen had more than asked her about schoolwork last night. Carlos tried for more conversation, but she just nodded, her fake smile still in place, and left as quickly as she came.  


Carlos spent more time drawing up inventions. His leg was hurting less, and he was able to walk now, mostly limping and hopping on one foot, just to the other side and back of the treehouse, so he moved over to his workstation and fiddled with some of his current projects.   


All in all, it was the most restful time in his life, if he ignored the fact that Cruella was going to be pissed at him for not completing his chores.   


Evie dropped off his homework at the end of the school day, and most of the time, she would stay awhile and they would talk about what happened at school or about homework. They never strayed to the topics of their parents, and Carlos felt that Evie was hiding something from him, though he didn’t know if it was something that happened at school or something from her conversation with her mother.   


Carlos didn’t press.   


  
  
It was one day after Evie had left for school that it happened.   


It was two weeks after the wardrobe incident, as he was calling it in his head. They had done their usual routine of Evie coming to pick up Carlos’ homework, and chatting for a few minutes. Carlos’ leg was almost good enough to walk on, even if it was with a bad limp. But he could move about, and that was what was important to him. It meant that he could go back to doing his chores soon, and he could also hide from Cruella for not doing them for two weeks.   


Evie had just left, and he had limped over to his desk, ready to finish his latest invention, when it happened.   


A thump, and then the sound of someone climbing up to the treehouse. Carlos frowned. There was no way that Evie would be coming back so soon after she left. Which meant that it was someone else.   


Carlos shot up from his seat, as much as he could, his stool falling in a clatter behind him. Scrambling, he reached behind him, hand skittering across his desk as he tried to grab onto something that could help him. He managed to grab something and brought it around in front of him, just as the hatch opened.   


He was shaking as he leaned against his desk, trying to make it look like he was standing steady, his hand quivering as he pointed his makeshift weapon at the opening. His breathing was heavy and he was sweating as he stood there, scared to his bones, but knowing better than to show it.   


To his surprise, purple hair was the first thing he saw. Then green eyes.   


He froze, no longer shaking.   


Mal was here.   


Mal had found his and Evie’s secret place. How had she found it? How had she been able to get up to the treehouse as well? His mind raced as Mal pulled herself up, smirking at him, her green eyes glowing with mirth as she stared at him. She stepped out of the way, and another set of hands grabbed the edge.   


It was Jay who came up after Mal, to no surprise. The two usually went together everywhere, especially when causing mischief. Carlos had been on the other side of their mischief plenty of times and had suffered for it. He didn’t want to know what they had in store for him today.   


Once Jay had climbed up, the two stood there, staring at him, smirking.   


Carlos started shaking again.  


  
  
“De Ville,” Mal stated, taking a step closer.   


Carlos tried taking one back and stumbled into the corner of his desk, barely catching himself from falling. He stayed there, pointing his weapon at the two and clutching the desk with his other hand, trying to stay standing.  


If it was possible, the two’s smirks grew wider.   


“De Ville. You can put that pencil down. It won’t do you no good.”   


Carlos frowned. Pencil? What pencil?  


He looked at his hand that was holding his weapon. Well, would you look at that, he was holding a pencil as a weapon against two of the most feared VK’s on the isle. Technically, the pencil could be used as a weapon, however, it could be used as a weapon by someone more skilled than him, as well as uninjured.   


Slowly, he steadied himself more, and then reached back to place the pencil down on his desk. That definitely wouldn’t help him in this situation.   


Mal nodded her head, “Good pup.” Her voice was condescending, as was her smile. “We need you to make something for us. Something that no one else on the island has.”   


Okay, Carlos would admit that he was curious. He was an inventor, and if there was something that he could build that didn’t exist on the isle, in pieces or otherwise, Carlos was the guy to come to. Though he did wonder what they needed, especially if they were coming to him.   


“What is it?” He was proud of himself, his voice didn’t waver when facing down the two. As he spoke, they started to look around the treehouse, Jay wandering off to the side, straying near what had been Carlos’ bed the past few days. Mal had taken another step closer to him.   


Carlos kept half an eye on Jay but mostly focused on Mal. He knew that they could take whatever they wanted, and he wouldn’t even know, especially with Jay’s sticky fingers. He just hoped that if Jay stole any inventions or parts, he wouldn’t need to try and buy them back. Though if they wanted something, he could make it a requirement of their deal that Jay give back everything that he stole, and not steal from him in a while.   


“We need something to communicate with. Across the isle, wherever we go.” By the end of Mal’s request, she was standing right in front of him. Carlos clenched the desk harder to keep standing.  


Communicators. He could maybe do that. But there were few ways to make that happen. First, they needed a signal, or some kind of frequency, to carry the message, though on the isle it was near impossible. He would need to break through the barrier to do that. Luckily, Carlos had been working on something to do just that already.   


He definitely would be able to make the communicators, it might just take some time. He wondered how much they would give him.   


Biting his lip, he nodded. “I could make communicators. It will take time, and there are several steps I need to complete, as well as parts that I need to make them. But I could do it.”   


Jay walked over to where Carlos and Mal were standing.   


“How long will it take, and how many steps?”  


Shit. He didn’t want to tell them that he had a way to break the barrier. He was counting on them not knowing, as he didn’t want everyone to know that he had a potential way out of this hell.   


“Maybe a couple of months? Longer to get all the needed parts as they need to come on the barges. Especially if I need two of everything to make communicators for both of you.” There, avoid it.   


Now distract them.  


“What would I get from making them?” Talk of payment. There we go.   


Now, what did Carlos want exactly? Hmmm. Maybe he could strike a deal them to leave him and Evie alone or to protect them until the communicators were done. That was probably the best bargain he could make. He didn’t know what else he wanted.   


“What do you want?” Mal didn’t have sharp teeth, but sometimes when she smiled it looked like it did. “You already have something in mind. You’re too clever not to have something thought of.”  


She got him there. Carlos nodded.   


“Protection. For Evie and I until these are built. No stolen lunches, no being shoved in lockers. Left alone.”   


Mal looked and Jay, and they seemed to be having a silent conversation. They looked back at Carlos together, and he tried not to show how heavily he was leaning against his desk. His arms were quivering and his leg felt as if it was about to give out. He’d need to sit down soon.   


They nodded, and Carlos was relieved.   


“The first step is to plan how I’m going to do it. I can draw up a few blueprints and find the best one. That might take a couple of days.” Maybe that would get them moving along so he could be weak outside of their sights.   


Mal smiles like she can read his mind. Then she let it turn into something that seemed more innocent than anything that she should be able to do.  


“And let you rest that leg of yours?”   


Fuck.   


Though it wasn’t that hard to miss if you looked. He was trembling slightly, and he could feel the sweat dripping down the side of his face. He also preferred shorts, so the bandages were clear to see on his leg. He also hadn’t been at school for a couple of days, and they had probably looked for him first there. At least they promised not to hurt him.   


Well, there was nothing left to hide.   


“Yes.” Though it was through gritted teeth.   


They exchanged another look, and then Jay was gone. Mal moved to the edge of the opening, all the while keeping an eye on Carlos.   


“We’ll see you in a couple of days.”  


Then she was gone too and he was left all alone.   


He collapsed on the floor, staring at where they disappeared. He stayed like that until Evie came back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm away next weekend, so I'll either write something longer and post it in two weeks, or write something that will be shorter but I might publish it next weekend.


	4. School

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I meant to write a longer chapter, but as I mentioned in the last chapter, I went away and I didn't take my laptop so I started this chapter later than I would have liked. 
> 
> Also, I feel like it should be noted that I know nothing about radios, walkie-talkies, and anything requiring frequencies. I made this up as I went along and I hope I’m not too wrong.

“Carlos! Carlos!”

Carlos came back to himself when Evie dropped to the floor on her knees next to him.

He didn’t know how long he had been sitting there after Mal and Jay left, pondering on what he was to do. Sure, he and Evie were protected, for the time being, so he only had to worry about Cruella, instead of all the other VKs as he usually would, but he didn’t know how long it would last.

Probably until Mal and Jay grew tired of waiting for the communicators to be ready as he didn’t know if he’d be able to break the barrier as that was the first step.

Though… if he was able to find a couple of pieces on the next few ferries, maybe he could finally put together one of his inventions. One that he had made to let frequencies through that he designed so he and Evie could watch t.v. together, but now it would be used for more.

“Carlos! Answer me!”

Oh, right. Evie was here.

Carlos sucked in a deep breath, his eyes focusing back on the present instead of trying to imagine his doom. Evie was kneeling next to him, shaking him lightly. He looked over at her. She had just come from school, her bag on the floor next to her, her face covered in makeup. Carlos smiled weakly at her and she relaxed slightly.

“What was the question again?” It was probably about if Carlos was okay, what was he doing sitting on the floor, what happened that left him like this.

Did he want to tell her about Mal and Jay?

It would probably be for the better if he did, otherwise, Evie would wonder why no one was bothering them, and she’d probably notice when they started hounding him for their communicators.

Evie looked at him like he was an idiot, then she sighed.

“I asked if you are okay. You knew that.”

She was totally on to him.

Carlos tried to smile reassuringly at her, though it was somewhat weak.

“Um,” he paused, unsure how to continue. Should he ask if she wanted to sit down in a more comfortable position before he told her of the news? It would probably be better if he just got it over with.

“I have a deal with Mal and Jay.”

There we go. It was out. Evie knew.

Of course, he would need to go over exactly what the deal was, the communicators and the protection, and it was likely that Evie would ask what it would take to make the communicators.  
He was not looking forward to this.

“What?”

Okay, that was pretty calm, but it did sound like a calm that meant that Carlos needed to explain everything and he needed to explain it now.

He drew in a shaky breath, held it for a few seconds, and then let it go.

“Mal and Jay came to me and requested my services for something,” Okay, that didn’t sound sketchy at all. Not at all. He could see Evie’s right eyebrow rising and he rushed to explain.

“They want me to make communicators for them.” There we go, that was the hardest part. Explaining his end of the deal would be easy. The rest would probably not make Evie happy he didn’t think any of this would make Evie happy, but what else was he going to do? Evie knew that he was one of the weakest on the island, that he relied on smarts instead of brawn to help him, even when that wasn’t the most effective on an isle where the pecking order was determined by physical strength. This would at least keep them safe from a lot of people for a little while. And maybe after, if he could strike up another deal to keep them safe for even longer. Maybe he’d ask if they needed anything repaired.

Probably not, and he was just fooling himself if he thought that they would do anything for him.

Evie still hadn’t said anything to him, just stared at him, eyebrow still high up on her forehead. Usually she only did that when she was shocked, otherwise, it would make her worry about wrinkles. It made Carlos more nervous than he’d like to admit. To stop the awkward silence, he blurted out the rest of the deal.

“They will protect us until I’m done!”

So what if his voice squeaked a little, his voice pitched higher on the final word, making what he meant to be a statement into what sounded like a question. 

At this, Evie’s left eyebrow shot up to join her right, high up on her face, eyes wide as she realized what kind of deal Carlos had negotiated.

On the surface, it was pretty smart.

Mal and Jay, the most feared kids on the isle, had asked for something to be made. Carlos, one of the least feared kids on the isle, could make said objects. They employ him and protect him when he’s working for him.

The real danger is when they got tired of waiting, or from the two worst kids themselves.

Carlos was hoping that Mal and Jay got that he meant protection from themselves as well. He didn’t want Jay and Mal picking on him while he was building these. Sure, they could keep everyone else away, but what would happen if they got impatient? Carlos was an easy target. They knew where he lived, they knew where his hideaway was, and now they knew about his bad leg.

Carlos was technically on the worse side of the deal, because he had the most to lose if something went wrong, and knowing his luck, it probably would.

“You agreed to a deal with Mal and Jay?”

Oh no, Evie’s voice was ice cold. Carlos winced, his fingers twitching nervously.

He nodded once, sharply, voice abandoning him.

“And this deal was to make them communicators and in exchange,” She was glaring at him now, mad enough that even the Gaston’s would notice. “We would get protection.”

Carlos nodded again.

She was angry, but at least she seemed to be thinking through her response.

Evie sighed, then reached up to massage her temples.

“Do I need to explain to you why that is dangerous?” Carlos tried not to be offended by her tone. 

What else was he supposed to do when the two most dangerous villain's kids climbed up his treehouse and all he had was one working leg and a crappy pencil to defend himself if needed? He definitely wouldn’t be able to put up much of a fight right now, and he could only imagine how much worse his life could get if he tried to refuse.

As of before, Mal and Jay hadn’t been picking on him specifically. Sure, he did get beat up a lot more than the others, but that was because he was small and weak and an easy target. So easy that Mal and Jay didn’t pick on him as much anymore because it was no fun. Now they only seemed to do it whenever he crossed their paths instead of seeking him out to beat him up.

If he refused, he imagined that that would change.

Instead of only being picked on when he ran into them, they would probably actively seek him out to make his life hell. Purposely stalking him through the halls, calling his name, setting the other VK’s on him. His life would get much worse if he had denied them their request. He knew that Evie was aware of this and she knew that he was aware of it and that she was just scared for him right now, so all he did was shake his head.

“And how long is this deal to last?”

Carlos looked out one of the windows. “Until I finish making the communicators.”

“And when shall that be?!”

Carlos had to hand it to Evie. Only now was she starting to raise her voice at him. If he was in her position, he would have raised his voice in hysteria right at the beginning.

Carlos winced. “Probably a couple of months,” looking back at Evie, he saw her sharp look and hurried to explain further.

“I need to plan how they will work, and then I’ll need to get all the parts, enough for two at least.” Evie tilted her head, her stare indicating that she knew there was more to it than that.

“Ineedtobreakthebarriertogetfrequenciesherewhichwillallowthecommunicatorstowork.”

Oops.

“Carlos. Breathe”

Right. Okay. Carlos has this.

Taking a deep breath, he started again, slower this time. “The communicators will only be able to work on certain radio waves. To get those frequencies, I need to break the barrier.” He paused to swallow, Evie knew the next part, but it would reassure Carlos himself to go over it. “I already am partially done a machine that should break the barrier, even if it is for only a second. That will allow me access to the required frequencies.”

“How long will it take for you to finish that?” Then she frowned. “And since when had you been working on a machine to break the barrier?”

Carlos brought a fist to cough awkwardly into it. “I only need to get the parts, so I don’t know how long it will take.” He knew he was blushing terribly. “It won’t keep the barrier open for more than a couple of seconds, just long enough to allow certain frequencies through. I was… trying to make such a machine so that you could watch more of that show that you were interested in.”

Carlos didn’t want to know how red his ears were. Sure, Evie was practically his sister, but he felt like he never did anything for her except provide good discussions sometimes, and that she did far more for him. He wanted to get this ready before telling her so that it could be a surprise gift.  
Carlos continued, looking away from Evie, too embarrassed. On the isle, you’re never supposed to do anything for free. “You know, the one with all the Princes. It was supposed to be a surprise.”

The treehouse was silent and Carlos continued to look away. There was one bonus to Evie getting this out of him now. The fact that he was planning something to break the barrier, supposedly unbreakable, just so she could watch a show? Maybe that would make her less mad at him.

“Carlos,” Oh thank Evil, Evie’s tone was warm. Fond. Carlos looked back up at her through his lashes. She was smiling gently now at him. “Oh, Carlos.” She leaned forward to hug him. “Thank you.” Carlos had never felt safer at that moment. In his treehouse, with his sister, in her comforting embrace. After facing off against Mal and Jay with nothing but a small pencil while he couldn’t stand had shaken him, but now he felt like everything was going to be alright.  


Of course, he still had talked through it with Evie. They spent the rest of the evening lying together on their nest and talking about their situation.

Evie wasn’t exactly happy with it, but she did agree with Carlos’ assessment of the situation. It was better for them to accept the deal and bargain for protection because anything else might not have been as well received.

When he did return to school, barely two weeks after he was first injured, Carlos was relieved to find that no one bothered him. Sure, there were the stares and the whispers, especially as he limped through the halls, but nobody demanded him lunch (nonexistent as it was) or shoved him into a locker.

That was probably the only reason why Carlos made it through the day. He limped from class to class, slow and often late if the two classrooms were far apart. He made it through, all but collapsing on his seat when he reached it. He often would sit there for a couple of minutes, wiping the sweat away and breathing hard as he tried to ignore the rest of the class that was paying attention to him.

Usually, Carlos would stay under their radars. Too weak for bullying to be fun, quiet and good at slinking around, Carlos was never the center of attention unless he was being beat-up. But now, he was limping along, slow and an easy target. He had an obvious weak spot. Several times it looked like someone was about to say something, about to insult him, or even approach him, only to stop in their tracks or shut their mouths abruptly.

Carlos didn’t want to know what Mal and Jay had said or done to enforce this kind of behavior.

When he had arrived at his and Evie’s customary lunch spot, he all but collapsed in the chair, as even if it was only halfway through the day he was dead tired-he had started to lean on the walls to keep upright.

He had leaned forward and whispered all the changes, his eyes wide at how all he got anymore was stares and whispers, and how he didn’t know what to do with that.  
Evie had giggled and informed Carlos that Mal and Jay had made an announcement out of Gaston the Third when he had misgendered Carlos in front of them the day after their deal.  
Carlos was sure that his jaw had hit the floor after he heard that.

Someone besides Evie and his cousin Diago had stood up for him? Someone who people listened to had slugged some of his worst tormentors in front of the whole school to declare that they had a deal? For Mal and Jay to publicly claim Carlos, and by extension, Evie, as part of their group?

For the rest of the lunch, he had sat at the table, wordless in shock. The meaning of their deal only now sinking in. Evie didn’t mind. She just smiled gently at him and continued about her theory on a new poison she was developing. Carlos listened with half an ear, mostly focused on the new revelation.

He was so glad he had taken the deal.  


  
Carlos arrived home sweating and swaying and ready to fold over right where he stood just so he could get some weight off of his leg. Evie had walked him to his front door and smiled as she waved goodbye as she left for her house. Carlos had been avoiding Hell Hall, only stopping in to do his chores, but otherwise, he had been staying at his treehouse.  
He had already finished any chores he needed to do by today so he made his way over to the treehouse, glad that he had thought to do them earlier because it felt like he couldn’t even make it to the treehouse.

And indeed, Carlos’ legs did give out halfway through his backyard.

In a second, the trip to the treehouse with his leg bleeding all over and the waves of heat and cold raking his body as he tried to get it to do what it was supposed to.  
And then it was over and Carlos was not on the ground, instead of in the arms of someone. Two strong arms were grasping him, one around his waist, the other on his right shoulder where the person stood.

Grasping for breath, as it seems to have left him when he started his descent, he looked up at his savior, surprised that someone on this isle besides Evie would stop him from falling.  
And then blinked in shock and he was stood upright again, this time with someone’s firm grasp on his waist to keep him from falling back down immediately.

The person who had stopped him from collapsing was Jay.

Jay, son of Jafar, who Carlos currently had a deal with.

Carlos was also pretty sure that saving him from face-planting was not part of the deal. He blinked up at Jay, unsure why the other boy was here. Had he come to watch Carlos work? To make sure that he kept up with his end of the deal? Was he here to tell him that the deal was off (though Carlos didn’t know why it would and why Jay just didn’t him fall if that was the case)?

By Evil, this whole deal was making him very jumpy. He didn’t know how his nerves would be able to handle it if this went on for a couple of weeks, let alone potentially months.

“A little unsteady on your feet there?” The tone was only a little mocking to Carlos’ surprise. Sure, Jay sounded amused, hell, he looked amused, the left side of his mouth hitching up in a smirk. But it didn’t sound as if he was making fun of Carlos, more like he was trying to share a joke.

Carlos furrowed his brow, swallowing, and giving a jerky nod. He would go along with Jay’s joking tone if only to try to get on his good side. “Only a bit. I was mostly looking forward to a nap on the grass. It looks comfy today.”

Jay barked out a laugh, head tilted back. Carlos allowed himself to have a half-smile on his face. Look at him, actually socializing with someone other than Evie. He’s shocking himself.

Still chuckling, Jay shook his head, before glancing down at the frankly dry grass and then looking to Carlos. “If that’s your idea of comfy I think you are out of your mind, but well, each man to himself.”

Carlos huffed out a laugh at that as they started towards the treehouse, Carlos still leaning heavily on Jay. This wasn’t too bad. Sure, his pockets might be empty by the end of this exchange, but it wasn’t like Carlos had much of value on him right now except for his journals that contained ideas for his inventions. Not that Jay or anyone else on the isle would be able to understand them if the other boy did end up stealing them. Though would Jay steal them? The journals didn’t count as lunch, so they weren’t exactly included in the no stealing deal.

Hmmm.

Maybe he should ask Jay about that at some point. See if he could extend their goodwill to not stealing from them, at least anything important until the deal was done. Damn, he should have included that from the get-go.

With Jay's help, they made it to the treehouse and up it much faster than Carlos would have been able to do alone, which he was grateful for. Jay helped him over to his work station, where he had a bunch of parts laid out, most prominently the one to break the barrier front and center with a couple of blueprints surrounding it. Finally able to rest, Carlos let himself sit down heavily on the stool, taking a couple of deep breaths before turning to face Jay.  
Jay had been looking down at the mess on his desk with raised eyebrows, obviously wondering how the strange contraption, which at this point looked like a jacked-up stereo, contributed to their deal.

“That’s to help me with how the communicators can work.”

“Does it allow you to listen in to our conversations?”

Carlos blinked. He hadn’t even considered that. He wouldn’t though. If he did that and Mal and Jay found out, he’d be dead in a second.

He frantically shook his head. “No, no. Of course not. That’s to help with setting up the frequencies that will help them work. I won’t be able to listen to any of your conversations though.”

Jay smirked, and then clasped a hand on Carlos’ shoulder.

“Good.” His hand tightened to a point where it hurt. His smirk wasn’t friendly at all now. “I’ll be back tomorrow to check-in. Try not to take naps on the grass.”

Then he was gone again and Carlos was left in silence once again.


	5. Breaking the Dome

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unfortunately, a bit shorter this week, as I did start school again and I'm adjusting to the new schedule. 
> 
> But yeah, if you have any questions or see any mistakes, please let me know!

Carlos got pretty lucky in regards to gathering the parts to his invention, as it didn’t take too long to get them all.

Every day after school, when he was not doing chores, he would go back to the treehouse and tinker with the barrier-breaking machine, adjusting things as he went and making lists of what he needed for the machine, and then lists for what the communicators would need when he started working on the blueprints for them.

Most of the time, Evie would be with him, puttering around her side of the treehouse, making potions and doing homework. Sometimes she and Carlos would do homework together, but Carlos also usually finished any written homework in class, so unless they had the same assignment that was more practical, they rarely worked together on that.

When the barges came in, he went early, as did everyone else. He grabbed the parts he needed, which nobody else on the isle needed, so for the most part, he went unchallenged as everybody dashed around, grabbing what they could before anyone else grabbed what they wanted.

The last time the barges came in, Carlos had gotten luckier than he ever had before.

Carlos had gotten ALL the pieces he needed.

ALL of them!

It was a lucky steak that he never anticipated. He thought that it would take months.

That day he raced home, sprinting through the streets, ignoring the twinges of pain that raced up his right leg as he ran. It didn’t matter that he knew that he would be limping tomorrow, and probably a couple more days after that, but he was safe. He wouldn’t be picked on at school, especially because he was way closer than he was before.

He climbed up the treehouse, and all but threw himself at his desk, fumbling with his bag as he pulled out the needed pieces.

He swore and mumbled to himself as he struggled to put all the pieces together, building up his machine bit by bit, dropping the gears as he rushed to finish. 

“Come on, come on, come on. Almost there.”

His tongue was probably sticking out of his mouth and he knew that he was looking all squinty-eyed at the machine, but he didn’t care. He was almost done! He scrambled, fingers dancing across his desk as pieces skittered away from him.

There!

He all but slammed the last piece of the machine in, before slapping the back paneling on.

It was done! Carlos jumped up and danced around, ecstatic in his success! After a short amount of time, he dropped back down onto his stool, legs tapping on the ground in an almost fevered pace. His hands fluttered around the machine, unsure of what he should do now, not sure what he should do now that he was finally here.

Carlos pressed the On button and his world exploded.  
  
  
Okay, to say that Carlos’ world exploded was definitely an exaggeration.

But not by much though.

After he had pressed the On button, there had been a bright output of light, blinding him. There was a brush of force pushed from his desk and Carlos was sent reeling back, falling off of his stool onto the floor of his treehouse. 

In his ear there was a sharp ringing sound, that made him go cross-eyed for the minute that he laid there, on his back panting, feeling as if his breath had been punched out of him. When the spots in front of his eyes faded, he drew in a deep breath and blinked. 

There was a hole in his ceiling.

It wasn’t even a big hole. It looked to be only a little bit bigger than the size of a bottle cap, but it was there, and Carlos could guarantee that it hadn’t been there before. 

Leveraging himself to his feet, Carlos stumbled over to the hole, squinting his right eye and looking through it. 

The sky was… clear? It was blue? 

And then an orange tint started seeping in until the was covered by it and then it faded and the sky was cloudy once again.

He looked over to his desk, where the machine that broke the dome lay. Or had once lain.

The top of his desk was destroyed. It was blackened and everything that had been on it was either completely gone, or falling to ashes. Along with the machine that had started this. 

He looked at the machine and as he watched, the corner crumbled. 

He would need to cover up the hole soon before it rained. Or at least put a bucket underneath it.  
  
  


Evie didn’t come by that night, and when Carlos went home, Cruella was out already, though he didn’t know where. He had put a temporary patch on the hole in his treehouse and had placed a bucket underneath it just to be safe. 

Evie and he didn’t talk about anything on the way to school and walked mostly intense silence.

The next day at school everyone was talking about it. 

Not that Carlos was all that surprised about that. He had theorized that when the barrier broke that everyone who had magic on the isle, would be able to feel their magic coming back to them when the barrier was open. He hadn’t felt it, as he didn’t have a magical bone in his body, but he was betting other people felt it. 

Come to think about it, Evie, Mal, and Jay had probably all felt it as they all had magic in their blood. That was probably why Evie had not come to the treehouse last night. 

The teachers could barely get their classes to settle, not that they tried hard to anyway, but some did. Carlos also didn’t see Evie until lunchtime. It was one of the school days where he had the morning free of anyone he could potentially talk to, which nowadays surprisingly included Mal and Jay.

But boy, did he see them at lunchtime. 

When Carlos got out of his last class before lunch, he was immediately accosted by Evie, Mal, and Jay. 

Jay slung his arm around Carlos’ shoulder and Evie grabbed his elbow on the other side. Mal walked in front of them and the students parted ways for them and it was a weird feeling for Carlos. He had never seen them part like that before him, as on a normal day, they crowded around him, giving Carlos a sense of claustrophobia. 

“Wha-” Carlos started to ask what they were doing before Jay quickly shushed him.

“Not here. Wait until we can’t be overheard.”

Yeah, that made sense. But where would they go? Carlos didn’t think that there was a four-person table in the cafeteria that was far away enough from everybody else without a risk of being heard, and knowing this school, and given what happened yesterday and the show the four of them were putting on currently, people would definitely try their hardest to listen in to their conversations. 

Which meant that they were leaving school grounds. 

Not that Carlos cared, and even skipping a class or two wouldn’t endanger his grades, or him, as Cruella didn’t care that he went to school. 

He still wondered why they had taken this long to get him out of school though. If this was about what he thought it was, then it would make sense to grab him first thing in the morning so it wouldn’t be as noticeable as grabbing him in the halls during lunchtime was.

They marched in silence for the rest of the trip. Carlos was minorly surprised when they didn’t turn onto the street that he and Evie usually turned on to when walking home from school, which meant that they couldn’t be going to his treehouse. 

They arrived at a busy street, and out of the corner of his eye, Carlos saw Jay slip something into his pocket as they crossed it. When they reached the other side, Mal looked to both sides quickly before continuing down a small alley. They followed Evie, letting go of his elbow to take up the back of the group as Jay pulled him closer. Surrounded by the three of them like this, Carlos felt like they were trying to make sure he didn’t escape from them.

And then they were walking up the stairs to what Carlos assumed was an empty warehouse. Mal swung open a door that had been partially hidden and the four teenagers piled into the bigger space so they weren’t all pressed together. 

Jay released Carlos’ arm, but still watched him as Mal slammed the door behind them and Evie started ushering Carlos further into the room. He blinked. If he wasn’t mistaken, it seemed like Evie had been here before, as she led him out of the space into a smaller room with a beaten-up couch in it, with blanket scraps and pillows resting on it. 

This room was more friendly than the last, obviously lived in, with little items lying around that most likely belonged to Mal and Jay (and maybe Evie too, his mind whispered to him and Carlos tried to ignore it), and with art covering the walls, clearly done by Mal. 

This was Mal and Jay’s hideout, no mistake about it. 

Carlos was ushered to the couch, and then pushed so he was sitting in the middle. The other three came towards him and formed a semicircle around where he sat, all standing and staring down at him. 

Carlos shrunk into himself, pulling his legs up and leaning heavily into the back of the couch. 

Mal was the first to speak.

“How did you do it?”

Carlos swallowed. He had some idea what they were talking about, but he didn’t want to admit to it yet, even if they most likely already knew that it was him that broke the barrier. 

“Do what?” His voice sounded horse and shaky to him, and he could only imagine what he looked like to the others. Could they tell he was terrified of all them cornering him like this? Could they see the fine tremors that raked his body? They definitely could see his eyes jumping from them, person to person, and then away, glancing around the room for potential escape routes. 

Mal gave him a disappointed look, and Carlos shrunk further into himself if that was even possible. 

“You know what,” Her tone made it clear that he wasn’t to lie to her again. “You broke the barrier last night.” 

Silence filled the room, as the three of them stared at him as he shook on the couch. He couldn’t read their faces. Were they angry? Would they stop protecting him? Was Evie angry that he went ahead and did it without her knowledge? 

In any case, it wouldn’t help him if he pretended to play dumb, not at this stage, not now. 

“Yes.” He took a deep breath and uncurled just a little. "Yes, I did."

They blinked at him, as if not expecting him to agree to it so easily, expecting him to shy away from their question a bit more. 

Then they gaped at him. 

He couldn’t blame them. Out of the three of them, only Evie knew that he was planning on trying to break the barrier, and she thought he was months away. And they had been on the isle for years, and at the beginning, Carlos had heard that practically every villain had tried to escape, each failing, no matter how powerful and smart they were. 

And now, Carlos de Vil, fourteen, with no magic and a runt of the isle, had done what nobody, what their parents couldn't do. 

He had broken the barrier.  
  
  


“Okay, so go over this again.” Jay couldn’t get his head wrapped around what Carlos had done. This was the third time he had asked for an explanation. 

“Fine.” Carlos sighed. “I made a machine to break the barrier. I got all the parts sooner than I thought I would and I put it together and turned it on and then it blasted a hole through the barrier. Then you cornered me and dragged me here. The End.”

It was bolder than Carlos usually dared to be, but he was done with sitting here and explaining it again and again and again. Mal had stalked off and was now pacing around the room, and Evie was sitting next to him on the couch, with Jay standing in front of him. Evie lay a hand on his shoulder, and he looked over to her. She looked weary but also hadn’t said much about what he’d done. Most likely because she had already known that he was planning on this. 

“Why did you do it?” Mal’s voice made them all turn to look at her. This was the first time that she had spoken since she had demanded Carlos tell them what happened. 

“Ummm…” How should he tell them that he did it so that Evie could watch tv? They would think that it wasn’t a big enough goal for the son of a villain. 

“Carlos was experimenting. He wanted to start small.” Oh, thank Evil. Or well, thank Evie for making an excuse for him. 

“I wanted to see if I could do it. If my theories were correct.” 

Mal and Jay looked quite impressed with him. 

“What are you planning on doing now?” 

“Well, now that the dome had been punched through, we should be able to receive certain frequencies. They will help with the communicators that I’m making for you.” They seemed astounded. 

“Make it four.”

Carlos blinked at Mal. Four? Four what? 

It must have shown on Carlos’ face that he didn’t know what she was talking about. He glanced sideways at Evie and met her bemused stare before looking back at Mal. 

“Four communicators. The ones originally for Jay and I, and then two more. For you and E.”

E? Who the Evil is E? 

He blinked, and then looked over at Evie again. Evie. She was E. Were they part of Mal and Jay’s gang now? Did they still have a deal or were they an alliance now? Was he part of their group, did he get a nickname as well?

“Come on Spotty, get those gears in your head in motion.” Spotty, was that him? 

Carlos realized that he had been sitting there, mouth slightly open and eyes wider than they usually were. 

Carlos didn’t know what to say. So he started with closing his mouth. 

"What is our deal now?” Mal, Jay, and Evie laughed. 

“Deal? We have no deal anymore. Now you are part of our gang. And you should no longer rely on our deal to keep safe, as since you are now part of our group, and will be protected anyway.” 

Carlos swallowed. 

Before he had a deal with two of the most powerful VKs on the isle, and now, he was part of their gang. Carlos didn’t know what was happening with his life. At least he was already sitting down or else his legs probably would have given out.  
  
  


School changed once again different for Carlos. 

Instead of only eating and talking with Evie, and being left alone in the halls, now he walked and talked with Jay and Mal and Evie, the four of them terrorizing the halls and then the streets.

Carlos had never been more well fed or happier. 

Sure, he was still shy around Mal and Jay, unsure how they were going to react to anything he did, who he was, but he was happy. 

They redecorated the warehouse so the four of them had their corners with their interests, and Mal repainted the walls to match. 

Carlos had gone through a growth spurt three months after they made the deal. He was still shorter than Mal and Evie, though not by much. Jay still towered over the three of them. He had enough food to eat, a dry place to sleep, even when his mother ran him out of the house. He was no longer bullied and he could relax.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Carlos is misgendered and deadnamed. Child abuse. It gets kind of rough.
> 
> There is a time skip here. In the novel, Maleficent sent the four kids to her old castle to gather her scepter, where they bond and stuff happens. This picks up right after it. And also, since this is fanfiction, I’m definitely not going with the original timeline. 
> 
> As always, please let me know if there are any mistakes! 
> 
> I also might need to change my update schedule, due to school conflicts. I'm thinking Monday/Tuesday is when I'll be updating.

Unfortunately for Carlos, the happy time came to an end as it usually does for him.

He had three months of break before Maleficent called them all to her tower. And then sent them out to fetch her staff. It had taken that long for her to locate it, after her familiar Diablo escaping his cage when Carlos broke the dome, and then she had sent Mal and her gang off to find it. 

The journey had led to Carlos telling everybody that his mother didn’t care for him, that she loves her fur and her car more. Not that that was new to Carlos however, he had already known it, and the others had probably known it, it just had hurt to say it out loud, to acknowledge it with other people around.

They had all faced challenges though, and they came through it more bonded than they had before. 

Their arrival home, however, was something out of Carlos’ nightmare.

  
  
“Carly! Carly!” His mother’s shrill voice pierced his eardrums, and he winced. 

That she was here was not a good sign. 

The four VKs had slinked back through the streets of the isle, arriving at Mal’s place to find their parents waiting for them.

They were arranged almost in a diamond shape, with Maleficent standing at the top. The Evil Queen was sitting off to the side, perched delicately on a chair, with Jafar standing the furthest away. On the other side of Maleficent, stood Cruella. 

Draped in her usual furs and her signature black and white theme, Cruella had a more insane look in her eyes than usual. Carlos swallowed and was glad that he was standing at the back of their group, with Mal and Jay being a united front against their parents. 

“Carly! Come here girl, now!” 

If it wasn’t humiliating enough to be called by his old name, being referred to as a girl and being talked to as if he was a dog was terrible, especially in front of his friends. Carlos’ cheeks burned and he knew that he was red enough to match the red on his outfit. He didn’t want to go to her. Nothing good would come with it and he knew that she would hurt him. 

The past months when he had been a part of the core four, he had been the safest he had ever been. He would do his chores, and sneak out of the house to meet up at their hideout. Only a couple times had he been beaten, nothing as serious as his leg, thank Evil, but for the most part, he had managed to avoid her. He didn’t think he’d be able to today. 

“Well girl, aren’t you going to obey your mother.” 

It wasn’t a question. Carlos looked at Maleficent, saw the glee in her eyes. 

He could see that she knew that he wasn’t a girl, that she knew that Carlos was a boy and was terrified of his mother. She saw that all and she revealed in the terror that she could install in him. 

Carlos could feel Evie pressing into him, grounding him, and he saw Mal and Jay straighten their backs and step in front of him, fully shielding him from their view. He felt protected but knew that it wasn’t enough. He knew that they too were scared of their parents, and if forced, they would need to let him go. 

He looked at the Evil Queen and Jafar, to see what they would do. Would they order their kids away? The Evil Queen looked like she was hesitating. She knew Carlos, had talked to him and had accepted his friendship with her daughter. She had also always referred to Carlos as Carlos and had used he/him for proper pronouns.

She also most likely knew what would happen if Cruella got a hold of him. 

To his relief, she said nothing. 

Jafar did say something though. 

“Jay, come here this instant!” Carlos saw his friend's shoulder jump up just a little, his muscles tensing even more. Carlos reached forward and grabbed onto the back of his vest. Trying to steady him. To his relief, Jay relaxed just a little. 

“Why, so you can be disappointed with me over there instead of over here?” Carlos’ mouth gaped at Jay’s audacity. He could have never talked to any of the villains like that, sure that they would kill him without a second thought if he did. “I think I’ll stay here.”

Carlos knew that his eyes were wide and that he was trembling. 

“Why would we want to go anywhere with you?” Mal. Thank Evil. Maybe she could sort this out. “We got your scepter. We finished our quest, we did as we were told. I don’t think we need to be told what to do now.” 

He tightened his fist around the bundle of Jay’s vest that he still held. He couldn’t see their parents, not with Mal and Jay blocking him, now packed together closer than before. He was holding his breath, unsure how this would end now.

“She’s mine! She needs to come home and do her work!” 

Evie gripped his arm even tighter when his mother spoke, her shrill voice cutting through the tension between Mal and Maleficent. It seemed that she didn’t care about the standoff between the ruler of the isle and her daughter. Cruella seemed to only care about getting Carlos back and working under her again.

“Carlos doesn’t belong to anyone.” Evie was coming to his defense. She too, was behind Mal and Jay, though more to the side so she could look at most of the parents. Her voice was strong, and she held her head high even if she couldn’t see Cruella. Mal and Jay nodded along with her. Carlos straightened up as well. 

He wasn’t alone. He had a gang that was with him. His mother wasn’t going to get him. 

He was also wrong.

  
  
After that, all Hell broke loose. 

Maleficent laughed and stalked forward, her staff hitting the floor loudly, as a countdown to danger. Mal and Jay shifted warily, allowing Carlos to see through them. Maleficent’s eyes were glowing green, and it seemed a faint smoke hovered around her. Power seemed to seep out of the fearsome woman. 

Carlos shrunk back down, no longer standing tall and proud with his gang, once again terrified. 

“Listen here, children,” her voice was quiet, but it seemed like it was echoing loudly in the small space that they were in. “You will do as you are told, because you are our children, and good children listen to their parents or they will face the consequences.” By the end of her talk, her voice had grown loud and almost as shrill as Cruella’s had been. She was also standing in front of Mal, staring down at her. 

Mal was also drawing herself up, and Carlos bet that her eyes were glowing green as well. “You should know mother, that we aren’t good children. We’re rotten to the core, so I wouldn’t bet on our obedience.” Unlike her mother, her voice wasn’t raised, and she was snarling. 

Carlos had never met a dragon, but right then it seemed like Mal was a dragon in human form. He bet that if she was out of the barrier she could turn into one.   
Mal and her mother stared into each other’s eyes, their power writhing around them, and the rest of them, Jay, Evie, and Carlos, needed to take a step back as the power that they had right now washed over them. Jay and Evie were doing okay, but they also had magic in their blood. Carlos felt like he was going to collapse, as his legs shook and he gripped onto Evie and Jay harder than before. Carlos didn’t want to know what would happen to them if she lost.

There was a tense silence in the room as the two battled it out, even Cruella letting them have it out, watching with interest. Her eyes were sharper than normal as she watched them. 

The silence went on longer and longer, and Carlos didn’t know how long it had been. It was probably only seconds, maybe even a minute, but it felt like it had been hours. He felt a bead of sweat dripped down his temple.

And then the tension snapped and Mal looked away with a snarl. Maleficent crackled, and Carlos stumbled, his legs giving out for just a second before he managed to stabilize himself with Evie’s help. 

He could distantly hear the other villains laughing with Maleficent. 

“Well then, your little rebellion is done. Come along.” Her tone was condescending as she reached forward and grabbed hold of Mal’s arm, dragging her away from their group. Jay took a step forward to stop her, before Jafar was suddenly there in front of them, grabbing Jay as well, yanking his vest out of Carlos’ fist. 

He stood there, trembling and in shock as their group was falling apart due to their parents. 

Then there was a sharp grasp on his hair, and a hard tug yanked his head back, making him cry out. He had been so caught up in watching the rest of the drama with Mal and Jay that he hadn’t been watching his mother, which had been a mistake. She had snuck up behind them and was now grasping his hair tightly in her fist. 

He could hear Cruella crackling as she started to drag him away from everyone, and he could see their wide eyes. Evie looked like she was going to cry, and Mal and Jay looked like they wanted to fight, but being held by their parents, they couldn’t. 

Carlos felt tears well up as the door slammed behind them.

  
  
Carlos lay on the cold floor of Hell Hall, staring into nothing. 

He felt bruised all over. 

Cruella had dragged him through the streets and people had mocked him as he was pulled along. By the time they had arrived, tears were streaming down his cheeks and he was breathing fast. His scalp was aching from where Cruella was grasping his hair. 

When they had arrived, Cruella had demanded that he take off his jacket, shirt and the cloth that he had been binding his chest with, and then whipped him and then kicked him when he was lying on the ground. When she had finished with that, she huffed and then walked away, leaving Carlos alone in the foyer. 

He couldn’t gather the energy to get up, could barely manage the energy to breathe, so he lay there, curled up into himself on the floor. He didn’t think he was bleeding from the whipping too badly, and he didn’t think of his ribs were broken. 

Eventually, he gathered himself. 

He didn’t think he’d be able to make it to his treehouse, not right now. Sure, he had gotten the will when he had gotten his leg almost cut off by the bear trap, but that was because he had been thrown into his room as a punishment. Now, it seemed that his closet bedroom would be his salvation. 

Slowly, he sat up and then when he had gotten the pain under control, he moved at a snail’s pace to grab his shirt and jacket. Whimpering, he slid on his shirt, aware that his cloth binding would be too tight right now and would only hurt his back even more. Hell, even the t-shirt seemed like it would be too much on his sensitive skin, stinging more where it stuck to his back than he thought it should.

The trip wasn’t so bad, not compared to the one with his leg. It was a shorter distance, and both legs worked. He found that as long as he moved slowly, and kept his back in one position, moving it as little as possible, that it wasn’t all that bad. 

By the time he got to the closet, he was sweating. His whole body felt gross and disgusting, covered in it. Carefully lifting an arm as to not strain his back or ribs, Carlos wiped off his forehead against the skin of his arm, only minimally succeeding in getting some of the sweat off. 

Soon, he thought to himself. Soon he would be able to lie down and sleep. Soon, he would be somewhat safe as Cruella seldom came into the closet, except to grab her coats, and even more rarely, to in the back where Carlos slept. 

He successfully managed to make it through all of the traps, more or less doing it by muscle memory now, before gently letting himself down to lie on the shitty mattress that was his bed. There were no blankets on it, as Carlos had moved them to either the treehouse or the warehouse, as he spent only enough time to do his chores at Hell Hall before running to one of them for the night. As a result, Carlos barely had anything here in his closet anymore and so he lay there on the terrible mattress, shivering from the cold and trying to calm the tremors that wracked his body, before falling into a fitful sleep.

  
  
Carlos was roused by voices. Not by much though, he felt as if he had fluff stuck in his ears, and his throat was dry and he had no motivation to do anything. He was surrounded by warmth and all he wanted to do was bask in it with no worries.

“Evil, this is where he sleeps? No wonder he never spends any more time here than he needs to.”

“I thought it was just Cruella he was trying to avoid, not a murder closet.”

“It’s mostly Cruella, but yeah, this doesn’t make him want to stay at home.”

“And I thought my bed was bad. At least I’ll probably survive if those t.v’s fall on me, this will probably take out a limb.”

“Well, it’s not for lack of trying.”

“What do you mean by that?!”

“Oh, you remember how he was limping when you guys made your deal with him? That was because he was recovering from being thrown in here.”

“Oh Hell! And he still has his leg?”

“I’m impressed he can even walk!”

“Well, it was pretty bad for a while, and you know how long it took him to recover. He also has a pretty wicked scar now on his leg though.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah. Hey, is he awake?”

“I don’t know. C? Pup? Hey C, we’re here to check on you.”

He wanted to say go away. He just wanted to rest. He let himself sink deeper into the strange warmth.

“I think he’s passed ou-hey, is that blood?”

“Oh shit, I think it is. E, can you get closer to him?”

“Shine the light more this way, I’ll try.”

There was some silence before Carlos thought he sensed someone crouching down beside him. 

“Oh no, that’s blood. We need to wake him up.”

No, Carlos protested in his mind, he didn’t want to get up. He wanted them to leave him alone. 

Someone was shaking him. 

“Shit, he’s not waking up!”

“Carlos!”

“Car…”

The rest faded away and he went back to sleep.

  
Carlos woke up with his face smashed into a pillow. 

He was lying on his front, and he was feeling slightly overheated, an oddity on the isle. The space around him wasn’t that dark, and he could hear some voices not that far away from him. He stayed quiet, listening before he identified Evie’s and Mal’s voices, and then closed his eyes again. He was safe. 

Carlos drifted off to sleep again. 

  
  
The next time Carlos woke, he registered that he was in pain. 

His back felt like it was on fire, itching like crazy. He wanted to turn around and scratch it until the tingling stopped, but he knew from experience that it would only make his back worse. 

So he stayed lying down and opened his eyes instead. 

It looked as though he was in the warehouse, as a stylized image of the Rotten Four stared back at him. That would mean that he was lying on their couch, though Carlos was pretty sure that they had padded the horrible thing with blankets so he wasn’t being poked with loose springs. 

He could hear voices again, though it sounded like Mal and Jay. He wondered what they were doing here. Hopefully, they hadn’t been beaten so badly by their parents. Then he wondered how he had ended up in the warehouse before he remembered the faint conversation that he had heard the first time he had woken up after dragging himself to his closet. Had they fished him out of that space? He hoped that none of them had gotten hurt by the traps, he knew how much they hurt after all, and he didn’t wish that on his friends. 

He needed water. His throat was dry, and he groaned as he tried to push himself back up, only to cry out as his back spasmed and he fell back down before he even got an inch off of the blankets. Carlos lay there, blinking black spots out of his eyes and trying to breathe calmly as possible as to not spark more pain in his back.   
He distantly heard footsteps coming closer and closer until he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up, the spots finally disappearing to see Mal and Jay kneeling in front of him on the floor. They both had looks of concern on their faces, though Mal was concealing it better. 

“How are you feeling Pup?” Jay looked nervous at his answer, though Carlos didn’t know why. 

He frowned. “I-” He didn’t know how to answer that. Before, when they weren’t allies, Carlos would have said he was fine. He possibly would have said he was fine before they went to get Maleficent’s staff, but now, he trusted them more. And he didn’t know how to answer them. 

Was he fine? His mother misgendering him in front of them all, before dragging him through the streets to whip him and beat him when they arrived at Hell Hall? Sure, no more traumatic than any other ‘punishment’ that Cruella had given out. But he had never had this much support before. Sure, Evie was helpful, and Carlos was so grateful for her, but she was only one person, she could only do so much. 

Was he fine with how Cruella treated him his whole life? 

No. He was tired of being treated like a slave, being misgendered and being kicked around, being constantly hurt and on the run. Being alone.

He didn’t want to live like that anymore. 

Carlos broke down crying.


	7. Jay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is from the other’s perspective as I wanted to try something new. The next chapter will probably be in Carlos’ again. Also, Jay has a fun realization.  
There is also discussion of Carlos’ body. I’ll do a short summary at the end of the chapter.  
As I said the last chapter, I’ll be moving the updates to Monday or Tuesday because of my new school schedule. I also have a surgery on the 8th of November - nothing serious, just wisdom teeth stuff, but it will be my first surgery so I’ll need to see how I feel.

_ Carlos broke down crying. _

Jay gaped and looked over to Mal for help. What did he do? He had never comforted a crying person before, fuck, he didn’t think he’d ever seen somebody cry before (not including tears of pain from being beat). Not like this at least. 

And not somebody that he cared about. 

Mal looked just as lost as he did, and so he turned back to look at the younger boy. Carlos was two years younger than him, and by Evil, did he look it right now. He looked fragile in a way that Jay had never seen him before. 

Even when he and Mal had invaded his treehouse- Jay still couldn’t believe that the pup had built that by himself- Carlos had held himself in a certain way. Sure, he had been terrified, that had been clear as day, but he still had fought in him. He had been standing up, even though Jay knew that he could barely take weight on his injured leg, and he had been pointing a dull pencil at them like he was going to kill them with it if they gave him a reason to. 

Come to think about it, Carlos was one of the strongest people that Jay knew. 

He was always getting beat down, by other students, his mother, and even Jay and Mal, but he always got back up. He was probably the smartest person on the whole damn isle, even at the age of fourteen (Jay was pretty sure that Carlos was only fourteen, even if he was in Jay’s grade-though Jay didn’t know why he hadn’t graduated yet, he was smart enough to).

Carlos always seemed to bounce back quickly, whether it be from physical or mental damage, he always stood strong, and after going on the quest to fetch Maleficent’s staff, Jay knew that he was brave. 

So now, kneeling on the semi-clean floor of their warehouse, in front of their beat-up couch that was padded with blankets, seeing the boy burst into tears in front of him scared Jay more than anything lately. 

It didn’t help that the image of his ‘bedroom’ in Hell Hall still haunted Jay. The small, dark space lined with traps starred in his dreams if he slept. As did the mattress browned with old dried blood from past grievances.

Looking at Carlos now, Jay could easily picture him sitting in the dark, clutching his bleeding limbs, paler than he should ever be, his freckles a stark contrast to his normal color. 

Carlos was still lying down on his front and had buried his face to hide his tears. Jay looked around once more in desperation as if Evie would pop up out of nowhere. The girl cared for Carlos like he was her younger brother, and if anyone could help Carlos stop crying right now, it would be her. 

Jay still remembered seeing her the next day after making the deal with Carlos. 

She looked just as scary as Mal looked, her face suspiciously blank, though her eyes were blazing with anger. She had stormed up to the two of them and told them in no less certain terms that if they hurt a single hair on Carlos’ head while they had a deal, then she would end them. Jay had almost been scared of her for a moment then. 

But he had laughed, and clapped her on the shoulder, before steering her to Mal and Jay’s lunch spot to sit her down and talk to her. She wasn’t too bad to hang out with. Once she realized that Jay and Mal wouldn’t be hurting Carlos while they had a deal, and in fact we're planning on making a permanent alliance with them (after all, Carlos and Evie seemed to be the smartest kids on the isle, and not a lot of people went after Evie in fear of the wrath of the Evil Queen- also because she was so pretty). From there on, Evie hung out with them whenever they had time, only leaving to go check on Carlos after school. 

But Evie wasn’t here. It was Jay and Mal, and they needed to comfort the boy, and Mal looked like she would rather fight Uma again than comfort Carlos (probably because she knew how to fight, she didn’t know how to comfort), so it looked like it was up to Jay to help.

He gulped. 

He could do this. 

Jay stood up and gently perched on the edge of the couch beside Carlos’ head. Evil, the kid was so small that he didn’t even take up the whole couch. And then slowly, ever so slowly, Jay reached out his left hand to run it through Carlos’ hair. 

It was softer than he thought it would be. The curls ringed his fingers as he ran his hand over it again. It was almost soothing to Jya, the repetitive motion, along with the feeling calmed Jay. This was nice. 

Jay kept doing that, and he saw Mal hesitantly reaching out and grabbing onto Carlos’ hand. Eventually, Carlos’ sobs subsided, and he lay there on the couch, breath hitching every couple minutes, sniffling every couple of seconds. Carlos did up turning his head to the side, though he turned it to face the couch back as if ashamed. 

Jay did not blame him, only adjusting his hand and letting him have some privacy. 

After about half an hour of crying, and then another half hour of lying there, Carlos finally fell asleep. Or at least Jay thought he did. In any case, Jay slowly stopped running his hand through Carlos’ hair, and then equally as slowly, stood up and jerked his chin to Mal to point to the balcony. They needed to talk.

Mal nodded, and carefully placed Carlos’ hand back up on the couch, and covered him fully with the blankets once again. Jay raised his eyebrows but didn’t comment, walking out of the warehouse. Mal followed. 

When they got outside Jay released a long, heavy sigh, before slumping over the railing. Mal groaned and leaned into the wall behind them. 

“When is Evie coming back?” His voice was muffled and rough, buried behind his arms. But he knew Mal still heard. She copied his sigh before replying. 

“She said tomorrow. Her mother still doesn’t want to let her out too much.”

Jay groaned and pressed his forehead further into his arms. He didn’t want to deal with this. He didn’t know what to do when Carlos woke up again. Hopefully, the other boy would sleep until tomorrow, but Jay wasn’t betting on it. 

“How do we deal with this?”

Mal sighed again. “I don’t know.” She was silent for a moment before speaking again. “I guess we do it together.”

Jay snorted. “We do it together? Mal, we barely know how to take care of each other, and we’ve been allies for a long time. We barely started hanging out with blueberry and spots, and as far as I can tell, they're a lot more emotional than we ever are.”

He felt Mal halfheartedly kick his boot before she came over beside him and hauled herself up onto the railing. She sat there, lazily swinging her legs. 

“Well, now we have Evie to help us. She seems to be… the most emotionally mature one out of all of us, so now we have some help.”

Jay nodded into his arms, she did have a point. Evie acted like she was older, emotionally. 

Then something occurred to him and he bolted upright. Mal looked to him, alarmed at his sudden movement, her green eyes wide. She started to open her mouth to ask what was going on with him, but he turned to her and cut her off before she could start talking. 

“Oh, my Evil we’ve adopted them.” 

Mal blinked at him several times, closed her mouth, opened it, then closed it again. 

Then she opened it again. “E and pup?”

“Who else?”

Mal seemed to ponder this for a little bit, Jay still standing upright and looking at her, as she tilted her head, before shaking it slightly. 

“I don’t think we have.”

Jay gave her an ‘I’m calling bullshit’ look. 

She squinted her eyes back at him. 

He intensified his look. 

She bit her lip and thought about it again. 

“I don’t think that we’ve adopted Evie at least.”

It was Jay’s turn to think about the evil children's adoption crisis that had unfortunately happened to them. 

Okay, maybe they hadn’t adopted Evie. Evie had already adopted Carlos (shit, does that mean that if they adopted Evie that they were grandparents? He didn’t want to think about it), and she could take care of herself despite not being among the people of the isle for ten years.

Hell, she had come and threatened them if they hurt Carlos, the first words that she had ever said to them. If anything, the three of them had adopted the youngest boy.

“But that still means that we’ve adopted a puppy.”

The two teenagers stared at each other, baffled and unsure how to deal with this new revelation. 

Then Jay jerked his head in a half nod. “We never talk about this again.”

Mal agreed immediately and they shared a brief look and a shutter before looking away from each other, Mal looking into the warehouse, probably staring at the back of the couch where Carlos lay, and Jay looked over the isle.

They sat in silence for a while, pondering over life. Jay was enjoying the silence, it meant that they weren’t talking about the shitshow that their life had turned into since coming home from their ‘quest’. 

Ja’far hadn’t beat him for whatever he had wanted Jay to do that he didn’t accomplish, he couldn’t, not with Jay being bigger and stronger than him now. Jay didn’t need him for anything, while Ja’far needed him for a lot more. His father had just yelled at him, telling him how big a disappointment he was, yadda yadda yadda. The usual. And then he had gone back to the shop and that was it. 

He knew something similar had happened with Mal and Evie, though Mal did have a bruise on her arm where Maleficent had grabbed her way too hard, that would be gone soon, their parent’s disappointment lingering longer than any physical marks. 

Except for Carlos. 

  
  
Jay still remembered it. 

Remembered meeting up with the girls in the warehouse, asking Evie if she knew what had happened to Carlos. It had been a full day since they had seen him being dragged off by Cruella, and Jay wanted to know if the younger boy was alright. 

Evie had gotten a pinched look on her face, before shaking her head no. She had then suggested that they check out his treehouse, and see if he went there instead of to the warehouse, wanting to be by himself. She sounded doubtful though, with a desperate look in her eyes that betrayed how hopeful she was that she thought up scenario was right. 

Jay and Mal had shared a frowned, unsure of what exactly was running through her head, before joining her as they made their way over to Hell Hall.

Hell Hall stood tall and dark, throwing a large shadow over them as they approached. The three teenagers had snuck into the backyard, crouching in the untrimmed grass as not to be seen by Cruella or her henchmen.

Long used to dodging the traps hiding in the untamed foliage, Evie led them easily further into the yard. Eventually, they reached their goal. They were all sweating by then, the tension and the muggy heat getting to them. 

Jay clamored up first, poked his head up once, before realizing that Carlos wasn’t in there, and probably hadn’t been in there in the past 24 hours. The blankets, fewer than there had been when he first saw the treehouse, lay crumpled on the ground, slightly dusty. The rest of the room was in a similar shape. Dusty and unused. 

Jay had climbed back down immediately, shaking his head at the girls.

Evie appeared to grow more frantic and moved faster through the grass, less careful than before, back towards the towering house. Mal and Jay had glanced at each other before following, a bit more carefully. 

When they had reached the house, Evie had instructed them to sneak around the house and check if they see any sign of Cruella or her henchmen, and then meet up here by the backdoor. Mal and Jay had agreed and set off. 

The three of them had checked all over the outside of the house, peeking in windows. Cruella’s car wasn’t in the front drive, and so when they met up a couple of minutes later, Evie had decided that it was safe to sneak inside. She had jimmied open the backdoor and then crept inside, the other two following her. 

She had walked quietly along the wall, moving through the house with startling ease. Evie had led them to a big parlor, and then stopped and gasped in the doorway. Jay and Mal had peaked over her shoulder, and then released their gasps of shock. There was blood on the floor. Sure, it wasn’t a lot, but it was still blood. 

Then Evie had turned, quick, quicker than Jay had ever seen her move and had sprinted in the opposite direction. Jay followed without hesitation and he knew that Mal was right behind him. The bluenette had led them up the stairs to the second floor, where she flung open the door to an almost empty room, the only thing occupying it a big wardrobe. Evie hadn’t stopped and had immediately rushed to the cloth storage, and Mal and Jay who had stopped running when they reached the room, glanced at each other, confused. 

Then Evie had flung the wardrobe doors opened and she beckoned them forward and asked if one of them had the flashlight. Jay had handed her his, and then glanced into the big space, unsure of what he would see, only to gasp when Evie shone the light into the tiny space and he could see a small, pale body curled up in the back, blocked by wicked bear traps.

The rest of the day was somewhat of a blur, getting Carlos out, and hurrying to their warehouse with him lying limp in Jay’s arms. The rush to get him bandaged and to check if there was any serious damage.

(His back was so messed up. Scars upon scars upon scars. It scared Jay, it did. His ribs were bruised, but they didn’t look broken. 

Jay also tried not to look at his chest when they took off his shirt, and then the bindings that he used-different from any of the bras that Jay had seen. In the back of his mind, when he had first met Carlos and up until today, Jay had registered that he had a face fit for a girl. The rumors didn’t help, saying that Carlos’ name was Carly, that he wasn’t a boy, that he was a girl. Jay had remembered mocking him for it a couple of times, a weapon used to hurt the other boy, but since they had an alliance, Jay had publicly supported him as a guy, knowing that it was what he preferred. 

Evie, Mal, and he had even had a conversation one day before Carlos was back in school. Evie had told them that they were always to refer to Carlos as he/him, and if the subject came up, only talk about it if Carlos was the one to bring it up and if he was comfortable with it. 

Jay had acknowledged all that and put it out of his mind. He didn’t need to think about the younger boy’s genitalia, because it didn’t affect him.

Carlos was a boy, and that was the end of the matter. 

And so he needed to turn away when Evie had taken off his bindings, only looking when Carlos was lying on his front. It felt like an invasion of privacy that Jay didn’t feel like he was allowed to see)

But eventually, they had managed to get the boy onto the couch all bandaged up and resting. Evie had needed to leave to soothe her mother - the Evil Queen wanted her daughter close after her latest bout of disappointment, so Evie hung out around them when they were supposed to be in school (nobody cared and Jay was glad that it wasn’t mandatory) and then needed to go home in the evenings. 

Luckily though, it had only been a day of this plan, and Carlos had woken up. It was also thankfully evening, which meant that they only needed to last through the night with a potentially scared/crying Carlos before Evie arrived to help them in the morning.

They just had to make it eleven hours. 

Easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Carlos is stripped (or Jay remembers that they needed to undress him) after Carlos is whipped to check for wounds. Jay also recounts about thinking about Carlos being trans.
> 
> And as always, please let me know if there are any mistakes! Thanks for reading!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think there are any necessary warnings for this chapter.
> 
> Anyway, I'm back and feeling better. Last week was fun. Because of the pain meds I was on, I had terrible focus. It was nothing major though, just wisdom teeth stuff, and I can finally eat solid food again and chew.
> 
> If you spot any mistakes, please let me know, and enjoy!

When Carlos woke up again, his eyes feel crusty and he was warm. He could tell that he was buried beneath blankets, and it was nice. He rarely felt warm, the isle always felt cold, and even with the jacket that Evie made him, he always felt a cold in his bones that he couldn’t shake. But right now, with blankets underneath him and above him, and an actual pillow beneath his head, he felt well rested and warm.

Then he remembered that he had fallen asleep with Jay stroking his hair and Mal holding his hand. Because he had started crying in front of them. He trembled, clutching at the blankets, pulling them closer to him. They wouldn’t want a crybaby in their group. He would be kicked out of their group, and he would be back by himself.

He bet even Evie wouldn’t stick with him. She like the other two, got along well. He had figured out that they had met and grouped up when his leg was injured. None of them had told him that, but Carlos had watched and listened as he usually did and pieced it together. When they had gone out to find Maleficent’s staff, they worked well together. Carlos had caught them laughing together over a joke that they didn’t tell him what it was about.

He bet that they were discussing it now, their faces disgusted.

Though…

Jay did sit next to him and pet his hair until he had fallen asleep, and Mal had clutched his hand, rubbing her thumb over his knuckles. 

Maybe they don’t hate him as much as Carlos thought they did. Maybe they would stick around after all. Maybe Carlos would get to have some friends. Maybe he didn’t need to face Cruella alone anymore.

He buried his head back into the pillow and drifted off again with a smile on his face.

The next time he woke up, somebody was stroking his hair.

The hand was gentle, moving slowly, messaging his scalp. After a couple of seconds, he realized that the hand must belong to Evie, as the nails were too long to be anyone else. He was relaxed, he was a puddle. He lay there. Drifting in and out of sleep as the scritches continued.

Eventually, though, he did need to wake up, and it was Evie who brought him out of his slumber.

Her voice was soft as she called to him. “Hey C, it’s time to wake up. I want to talk to my best friend.”

Carlos grumbled, letting out a noise that could have passed for a ‘no’ if one was listening close enough. This was too comfortable. This felt like the most relaxed he had been in years. Even his back wasn’t hurting that much, a faint burn and an itch to scratch. He felt Evie laughed, and she paused her hand, leaving it resting on his head.

“Come on, sleepyhead. Mal and Jay are going insane waiting for you to wake up.”

Carlos sighed, before turning his head further to the side so he could look up at Evie. Her hand moved with his head and she smiled down at him, obviously glad that he was awake. He huffed at her, and she giggled and then turned to call over her shoulder, presumably to Mal and Jay, alerting them that he was awake.

He closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath. Last time he had seen the two he had been crying, and they had soothed him to sleep. He didn’t think they would judge him too harshly, but you never knew on the isle that was filled with liars and murders.

Footsteps, hurrying towards the couch, sounding like they were trying to restrain themselves. Carlos bit his lip to keep from smiling, they reminded him of children, eager to see something/get something but poorly trying to conceal it. They had forgotten that even if Carlos wasn’t the scariest guy around and he kept to himself, he still lived on the isle, and knew how to read people to some degree.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw them rounding the couch before dropping into seated positions next to the couch. He could tell that they were both trying to go with casual looks, but he could see that they were concerned. He felt a little better. No way they were going to kick him out of the group with looks like that on their faces.

He stopped biting his lip and let the corner of his mouth quirk up into a smile. He felt better than he had in a long time. Sure, the three months before the disaster of their ‘quest’ was great, but he still actively avoided talking about Cruella and didn’t allow himself to cry. He was an isle kid, and he would probably die an isle kid, and being an isle kid meant no crying, no weakness, no trust.

But he trusted them, he had cried in front of them and they didn’t think any less of them. Their group would be fine. 

For the next four months, Carlos didn’t go home at all.

Before their ‘quest’, Carlos had gone home and done his chores, sweeping and mopping and dusting Hell Hall as much as possible, still allowing Cruella to treat him like a dog as he cleaned up after her and her furs and her car.

Now though, he never returned home to do his chores. He didn’t live there, and the only thing that Cruella had ever given him that meant anything was his life. He didn’t regret it.

He went back to his treehouse once, with the others, to collect the last of his stuff there. Then he permanently moved into the warehouse, where everyone but Evie was living there most days. Jay avoided Ja’far’s shop, and Mal certainly rarely saw Maleficent.

They set up different bedrooms for each of them, well, there wasn’t enough space for four bedrooms, so it was more like Mal and Evie shared while Jay and Carlos took the other. They strung up curtains between the door frames and decorated each room.

Mal and Evie’s room was a riot of blue and green and purple and black, the colors splashed across the walls. Mal had drawn a red apple next to Evie’s bed, a stark contrast to the rest. She had shown it to Carlos proudly as if she had done it herself and Mal acted like she wasn’t flattered by Evie’s adoration of her creation.

Carlos’ and Jay’s room was just as decked out, though with a slightly different color theme. The walls were black and white, with splashes of red and blue and yellow, though the blue and yellow were mostly on Jay’s side. Mal had painted spots on Carlos’ side, reminiscent of a dalmatians coat. 

The only thing that Carlos kept from Cruella was his color scheme.

He had gone so long in his mother’s signature colors, that he kept them. He was rather fond of them though and thought he looked great in them, as Evie often made sure to tell him, so he decided to make them his colors.

His small pile of clothes slowly grew a bit, now with four of them collecting fabric for Evie to design new clothes for them all. She always looked so ecstatic when one of them came back with some cloth that she could make something of.

The four of them, the ‘core four’ as Jay and Evie liked to jokingly call them (Carlos couldn’t say it without giggle-snorting, and Mal seemed to turn her nose up at him, though once or twice Carlos had caught her biting back a smile), wreaked havoc on the isle. 

They got into a territory/payback war with Uma and her crew, Harry Hook and Gil backing her up against the four of them, and tore apart the area of the isle that they owned. Carlos wouldn’t say it was overall that successful, though they did end up with more land, as Uma was mainly interested in controlling all the areas that touched the sea. 

Carlos grew another inch or so and studied even harder at the potential of breaking the barrier. He would talk to Yen Sid, hours upon hours spent in the old wizard’s office, talking about technologies and how they worked. The old wizard was happy to indulge Carlos as he usually was, enthused to share his knowledge with someone interested in once. 

Carlos was pretty sure that he suspected what Carlos was trying to do but ignored it. Yen Sid had a bleeding heart, for all that he needed to harden it while on the isle, and Carlos had seen his eyes linger unhappily at the bruises and the limps or various injuries that Carlos usually had on him before he left Hell Hall and even more before he joined up with Jay and Mal. 

For Carlos’ part of their unspoken deal (where Yen Sid told him about technology and magic and pretended that he didn’t know that Carlos was the one stealing from his classroom), he did all his homework, asked interesting questions in class, and got Mal and Jay to complete their homework on occasion (more than they had been at least) to some degree of success (they weren’t interested in the class at all and did the bare minimum before Carlos started helping them). 

Carlos had also completed the communicators a little while ago. Now the four of them could talk to each other from different sides of the slums, choosing to call one of them or all four of them. It came in handy more than once or twice when they were fighting Uma.

They had the run of the isle, together they got into scraps and out of scraps, and it felt like nobody could challenge them.

And then the letter arrived. 

Auradon had sent a letter to Maleficent.

For them.

For the Core Four.

Well, the letter was only for three of them.

Carlos hadn’t been invited.

Maleficent had summoned them, or well, more accurately, had summoned the others and had told them that it was fine if they brought along their puppy. Unable to deny Maleficent, they had gone.

Ja’far and the Evil Queen had been waiting along with her and had reacted accordingly to the news. They didn’t want their children to go, not until Maleficent managed to convince them it was for the better.

And then Mal had lost the power struggle with her mother against going, and for convincing her that Carlos should come along.

Maleficent had laughed and laughed, her mirth cutting off suddenly as she slammed her staff down and snarled at Mal that Carlos wasn’t going anywhere.

Carlos had felt the floor drop out from underneath his feet and hadn’t registered anything else for a while, until he came back to himself, sitting on the same couch that he had woken up on four months ago, the others around him, arguing. 

Evie was sitting next to him, her arm around his shoulder, clutching him protectively to her side. As Carlos started to become more aware, he realized that they were planning a way to either: 

  1. Bring Carlos with them to Auradon or
  2. Find a way to stay behind with them

Carlos would like nothing better than to stay with them. They were his only friends and a form of protection. They cared about him and helped him when he needed it.

But then…

If this was a chance to do better? If they stayed behind because of him? If they missed out of full meals and real beds and probably being better off than they are now? Getting away from their parents and their expectations, Mal’s always cold front, Jay stealing everything only to be called a disappointment for something he can never find on the isle, for Evie to get away from her Mother’s ever-watchful gaze, able to smile and be herself?

Carlos couldn’t do that to them.

He needed to get them off the isle even if they needed to leave him behind.


	9. Goodbyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maleficent is a bitch. Carlos is misgendered on purpose. 
> 
> As always, enjoy and let me know if you find any mistakes please! I still don't have a beta so I probably miss some things.

Carlos was glad that the others often didn’t go into his notebooks without permission or read over his shoulder.

If they had, they surely would have been shocked to read the section that he had dedicated to getting them off the isle, with or without him. They would react negatively, convinced that they needed to go everywhere together, even if it meant leaving behind possibilities that some would only dream of. 

Carlos was so happy that his friends had gotten the opportunity to leave and better themselves, away from their family and the rest of the filth that lived on the isle. They could always be full and have good clothes, and not have to listen to their parents. 

They could be happy.

And Carlos wanted that for them so badly. They had been so nice and accepting to him, he wanted them to have a chance. 

So he brainstormed. 

If an idea popped up, he’d hurriedly scribble it down, before snapping his notebook shut so the others wouldn’t look. He’d do this in the middle of class, at night, or when walking through the market. He’d even gotten up from the couch and run into his room to fetch his journal in the middle of watching a show with the others. He’d be getting strange looks, but he was confident that they wouldn’t go snooping, especially since he appeared happy and energetic while doing it, and not scared or anything like that. 

So whenever he went to plan their departure, all they did was laugh and smile fondly as they ruffled his hair. 

He also knew that it would all stop once they knew what he was planning, and once they realized that he wanted them to go. 

Him not going with them was the last case scenario. He wanted to try to get to Auradon with them, but he knew he couldn’t be overly certain that it would happen. 

Unfortunately for the rotten four, Carlos hadn’t gotten anything substantial to help him get across with them. It was almost impossible to get messages across the water, not to mention one that the royal family would get. There was no way to sneak out immediately, as any inventions he thought up would need to wait weeks to be built. 

Carlos had ideas on how to get the rest of them out without him though. 

He even had ideas that involved their parents, even Maleficent and Cruella. 

Those were the last on the list ideas though, so he tried not to think about what would happen if they actually went through with it. 

Other ideas were him thinking about ways to communicate with the other three once they got across. Carlos was pretty sure that he could use their communicators and modify them so that they could still talk with them, and if possible, make it so other people couldn’t snoop on their conversations. He also had ideas that could maybe just get him across. If they got across and sent him the correct materials, he could probably build something to help him get through the barrier faster. He would just need a boat. 

Or maybe…

He wasn’t the only VK who wanted to leave the isle. 

Uma, daughter of Ursula, had made it plenty clear that she’d rather be out sailing the world, instead of being stuck on the isle. 

In fact, that was a rather good plan. 

The plan:

  * Get the other three into Auradon
  * Be able to communicate with them somehow
  * Give them a list of items he needs, and have them send it across
  * Make a deal with Uma
  * Takedown the barrier only temporarily, so she and her crew, and Carlos, and maybe any other VK who wanted to leave, could
  * Meet up with his friends

He could do this! 

That plan probably could work. He could bargain for protection while he made the machine to help them get through the barrier, and then he could be reunited with his friends!

Yes! Carlos knew he could do this. 

Now, all he needed to do was to plan and design a bit more, and wait. 

He could this.

He knew he could.

Carlos could not do this. 

No, no, no. 

Oh no. 

He should have guessed that something would go wrong. 

Carlos had planned out everything, making minor adjustments to the communicators, sure that they would work. He had then proceeded to design something that would be able to break the barrier in a specific area (he had discreetly sneaked out to measure Uma’s ship so he could see about how wide and tall he needed to make the force to hold off the barrier) and had gotten them easily. He had written up the arguments that he could make to Evie, Jay, and Mal to get them to go without him, and decided that he would just inform them of his plan, and the argument that he would make to Uma to get her to take him into her crew for a hopefully short amount of time. 

And then the time had come for him to explain to the others and they shot him down.

Fast. 

He felt like he could pull his hair out. He explained in measured tones about how them going over and then sending him stuff so they could get all the VK’s off the isle. He explained that they could use the communicators even when they were gone and that he had a plan for staying safe. 

They had shot him down again and again, as he tried to explain his plan. Eventually, Carlos had thrown his hands up and had stormed out of their warehouse so he could go and tinker with something so he could try to think about what to do now. Hopefully, they would go along with his plan, once they thought it through, or at least when they left, they would take their communicators. 

Carlos barely talked to them for the next few days, too busy trying to come up with a new plan. Each time they saw him, they would try to argue that he should come with them, or that they would stay here with him.

Carlos would argue back with his points and one of them would leave in a huff. He barely stayed at the warehouse now, going there to sleep at night, but otherwise grabbing some of his materials and going off to hide and plan or create. 

It hurt Carlos to stay away from his friends, or dare he say, family, like this, but he had to convince them to go. They needed to go. He could think of no other option. 

Besides, he told himself as he stared out of the hole in the wall across from him, this would get him used to being by himself, away from them. He already had decided that he would stay in the warehouse and that if he was still on the isle when school started again, he would go back to school. He knew that he would be okay, especially once he made the deal with Uma. She and her crew would be able to protect Carlos.

And so that brought Carlos to the current day. 

The others were supposed to leave tomorrow and he still hadn’t convinced them that they should go. He wanted to go say goodbye and make sure that they had packed everything they would need for the trip. He wanted to spend their last night on the isle all sharing one bed, curled up and warm and all together, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to go back to their burning stares and concerned looks, as if they thought he had lost his mind. 

Carlos was thinking very clearly, thank you very much. He didn’t need the others looking at him with pity or confusion or worry. He knew what he was thinking, and he knew his plan was good. 

He just didn’t get why they didn’t see it.

He ended up going back to them that night anyway. 

None of them cried, because their isle kids and isle kids don’t cry. 

(That’s a lie, he’s cried in front of them before, Evie has cried in front of him before. He doesn’t know about the other two. There’s so much he still doesn’t know about the other two, so much he still doesn’t know about Evie. He wishes that he could know everything about his friends and he wishes that he could tell them that it was safe to cry, that they could come to him when they needed a hug. But this is the isle, wishes don’t come true, so Carlos will need to make do).

They did all lay down on Jay’s bed, altogether, with him and Evie in curled up together in the middle, Jay curled around Carlos’ back, his arm stretched across them all, and Mal behind Evie, her hand resting on Carlo’s cheek, holding it as she looked at him with eyes he couldn’t read. All he did was smile at her, closed mouth and he was pretty sure his eyes showed how scared and sad he was, but he also knew that she could see that he would not change his mind.

Carlos didn’t know how well the others slept, but he did. Well, a little. 

He’d fall asleep and then wake up with a start, laying on the bed trying to control his heartbeat, before being comforted by the warmth around him and the steady breathes of his friends, before falling back to sleep, only to repeat the cycle again. 

As a result, by the next morning, he was grumpy and tired, and clung to Evie, trying to soak up her warmth as he tried to get a couple more minutes of sleep. He could hear the others whispering above his head, but he didn’t feel like trying to listen to their conversation. Somebody's hand was slowly running through his hair, and he pressed further into it. He didn’t want the day to start. 

Sure, he had come up with the plan and had acknowledged that he would be left here, and he had thought about this day probably thousands of times before, but now that it was the day, he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want them to leave. 

“Carlos,” It was Mal calling out to him. He didn’t know if he wanted to listen or not. He felt like he knew what she was going to say. That they weren’t going without him. That they would disobey their parents, even though they were outmatched by the villains. 

“Carlos, wake up.” Her tone booked no argument, and Carlos grumpily opened his eyes to look at her. It was probably only a sliver away from a glare, but she only smiled at him. He frowned suspiciously. 

Sure, Mal smiled at them, and she saved her more gentle smiles for the three of them, and even then, she still rarely smiled. Smirks were more her style. So Carlos was instantly suspicious of that look right now. What did she want?

He felt Evie sigh, and what he guessed was her hand run through his hair again. 

“I’m up.”

He almost winced at his own tone, his voice rough and sounding annoyed even to Carlos’ own ears. He swallowed and looked down, staring at nothing. He bit his lip, trying to stop it’s trembling. There was a brief moment of silence above him, and he knew that Mal had probably shared a look with someone. 

“Carlos, listen,” there was a pause, and Carlos looked up at her again. Her smile was gone, though she still looked softer than usual as she stared at him fondly. “We decided to go with your plan.”

What.

They were actually… going to listen to him? 

They were going to leave to save themselves and allow Carlos to try to get the other VK’s off the isle. 

Carlos almost smiled. 

But he knew that there was more that they wanted to say. 

“That’s not all.” He stared up at Mal, and Evie’s hand stilled in his hair, and he thought he heard Jay suck in a breath. Mal and he looked into each other's eyes, and she nodded slowly. 

“We can’t get anything past you, can we?” Her lips quirked up. Carlos just blinked at her, waiting for her to continue. “We are still going to try to convince whoever comes to pick us up to take you. And if they don’t, well,” Her smirk slides off her face, and she seems to wilt a little. 

“Well, then we’ll follow your plan.” That was Jay, from somewhere behind him. He did not sound pleased, but at least he acknowledged that the plan that Carlos had come up with was probably the best they had right now.

Carlos nodded and closed his eyes. That was good enough for him, and so for now, he just wanted to get some rest. Evie’s hand started running through his hair again.


	10. Alone Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, short chapter as school is really picking up for the end of the term. Post-secondary is a lot of work, so I feel like I don't have that much time to write each week, but I will continue trying!
> 
> As always, please let me know if there are any mistakes, and I hope you enjoy!

By afternoon, the four of the rotten core stood waiting by the entrance to the bridge across to Auradon. Their parents weren’t there, though Carlos had a sneaking suspicion that at least Maleficent and the Evil Queen would show up, to remind their daughters of their goals. Or, well, their goals, not Evie’s or Mal’s goals. He didn’t think Ja’far would show, and Jay had told him earlier that he also didn’t think his dad would show up. Jay hadn’t appeared too sad about that though, and he had avoided his dad when he had gone back to his shop to collect his stuff, so Carlos was more than okay than that.   
He also would have been fine with the other parents not showing up. 

There weren’t too many people around, most of the villains and their kids off doing something else on the isle, unaware of the big change that was going to happen to four of their people, so they were left alone, which Carlos was grateful for. 

He and Evie were holding hands, and Jay had an arm slung around his shoulders which Carlos was leaning into. Mal was sitting on top of Evie’s suitcase, which was a nice one with wheels, watching the three of them. She had run through the plan with him one more time and had made sure that the communicators would be able to stay charged when they were over there. Carlos had modified them so that they could run on solar power, because unlike the isle, Auradon actually got sunlight. 

They had barely talked since they had gotten to the bridge. A few questions here or there, about the plan, or what Carlos was going to do for the rest of the day. Would he start his plan immediately, or would he wait a little while before approaching Uma? Would he stay at their old haunts, or would he find new bolt holes to hide from the VK’s who would fill in the rotten core’s territory? Uma probably wouldn’t want it, so it would probably go to the Gastons, who really hated Carlos. 

The answer to those questions was simple. 

Carlos would stay in the warehouse for a little while, after all, he had installed security measures, so it would be difficult for anyone to break in, so he would be safe there for a little while at least. He’d wait a week, to hear from Mal or someone about the situation on sending over the parts, before talking to Uma about teaming up to get off the isle. He probably would find a couple of new bolt holes to hide in, but he already had many that nobody knew about, so he wouldn’t have it too badly on that front. 

After that, there was little talk, as the four of them contemplated what the rest of today would bring. 

And half an hour after that, a little before noon if Carlos had to guess, the Evil Queen and Maleficent strolled up just as he predicted. There was always a hush surrounding Maleficent before she appeared, and so even with the day being quieter than usual, Carlos’ ears still picked up in the slight drop of noise, and he turned around to face the direction that he guessed that they would be coming from. Jay and Evie turned with him, and Mal stood up from her impromptu seat and moved so she was in front of everybody else. 

Maleficent’s smile was cold, her eyes vicious, and Carlos fought down a shiver. No matter how many times he saw the ruler of the isle, he was still terrified of her. The Evil Queen looked a bit more friendly, maybe if only because Carlos had spent more time around her, and she had never treated him too badly. Her smile was more genuine, as she gazed upon her daughter, appraising her outfit, before giving a silent nod. Carlos was glad, rarely did she ever not find a flaw, an imagined flaw as Carlos liked to call them because Evie always looked perfect to him, in her daughter’s look for that day. 

“Children.” 

If Carlos didn’t know that it was summertime, and therefore slightly warmer on the isle than usual, he would have thought it was winter from the cold that seeped from Maleficent's voice. Mal just lifted her head higher, meeting one of the most powerful being’s eyes without sweating a drop. Carlos would never tell Mal this, but he was extremely proud of her.

“All ready to go, I see.” It sounded like a question, but Carlos knew that it was not. Maleficent barely asked questions. She made statements, and by Evil, you better hope that she was not asking a question because that most likely meant that you had failed somehow and would be disposed of soon. Rarely did she ask a question without some form of the intent behind it.

Mal simply nodded her head. It didn’t seem like she was in the mood to talk with her mother, and Carlos didn’t blame her one bit. If Maleficent thought Mal disobedient, she didn’t say anything about it. Instead, she just smirked. 

“And you remember the plan, silly girl?”

Oh fuck. 

Mal sighed, sounding as annoyed as possible, as she confirmed with her mother that she knew the plan. The plan, which they, of course, would not be following. But Maleficent really didn’t need to know that. Carlos really hoped that Maleficent would be fooled. 

Maleficent hummed. “Very well then. And are you still planning on trying to take your puppy with you?” She sneered in the direction of Carlos, her head tilted at such an angle that she was looking down at him. Which, even with Carlos’ recent growth spurt, still felt like he was barely an ant beneath her shoes. 

He didn’t dare say anything, but luckily for him, Mal took the question. 

“Yes. He is important to the plan. He has valuable knowledge of how to work with the technology on Auradon.” Her tone had no room for argument, and Carlos watched as Maleficent’s eyes narrowed in response. 

“And what if the puppy can’t come with you? What will you do with the plan then?” 

“Then we will move onto our next plan, which involves magic, as you know.” Mal was giving no ground, not telling her mother a morsel more information than she needed to give out. 

Maleficent’s mouth curled up, and her eyes burned green as she watched the four of them with a perverse sort of joy. 

“So you’re just going to leave your little puppy out of the streets? What if her mother decides that she wants a new coat?” 

A chill ran down Carlos’ spine. 

He hadn’t even thought of Cruella trying to find him, now that his friends would be going. He hadn’t really thought about her coming after him for not doing his chores in so long, that he forgot that she was a threat. Sure, he still remembered the terror that she installed in him, and never wanted to see her again or be hurt by her again, but he had forgotten the mental strain of always watching the shadows for her or her henchmen. Always being light on his feet so he didn’t disturb her. 

And if he got captured and sent back to Hell Hall now…

Well, he wasn’t sure if he would survive. 

He stepped back from the two villains, his eyes probably the size of plates by now. Distantly, he felt Evie grab his hand again and Jay grabbed his elbow to steady him, but he was focused on the biggest threat right now. 

Maleficent.

She most likely had goons surrounding the area, watching for whatever Auradon sent over to pick them up. They could probably easily nab Carlos before he could get away, and then do whatever they wanted with him. Had Cruella made a deal with Maleficent? Had she traded something so that she could get Carlos back so she could skin him alive? Or was Cruella herself waiting in the shadows with Jasper and Horus, ready to pounce? 

If he couldn’t get out off of the isle, then what would happen to him? He couldn’t believe he looked over something so big. Maybe he could just sprint off as soon as they leave the barrier. 

Mal stepped in front of Carlos, cutting off his view of Maleficent. 

“She won’t be able to get to him. We have plans in place.” They didn’t really, but Carlos was willing to go along with it. If he got out of this area, then he would probably be good. Almost nobody knew how many bolt holes he had, or where they were. Especially if he allied with Uma, then he would be most likely safe because she would be invested in him making the machine to get them off the isle. 

Maleficent laughed, and Carlos shivered. Evie pressed up against him as if trying to keep him warm, and he was grateful for that. 

“Well then, I’ll be off. I’m looking forward to getting out of this bubble.” 

Thank Evil. 

He heard the swishing of a cape, and then footsteps as she walked away. 

“Evie, dear, remember, men only care about looks. Find that Prince.” And with that, the Evil Queen left as well. 

Carlos let out a long breath that he was unaware that he had been holding, and his shoulders dropped from where they had hunched up. Jay moved closer to him as well, throwing his arm around Carlos’ shoulder again, as Mal turned to face them. 

He met her eyes squarely, though he wanted to go back to this morning when he was curled up on Jay’s bed with his friends. 

Before anyone could say anything though, the barrier opened up behind them with a whoosh, and Carlos spun around, upsetting Jay’s arm and Evie’s hand as they watched a car drive through the opening before the barrier closed behind it again. The car was black and sleek, the silver highlights shining in the weak sunlight that the isle boasted. It was newer than anything than Carlos had seen.

The car stopped before them, and after a second a man dressed in a grey suit got out. The man wasn’t that physically imposing, not when you thought about Gaston and his family, but he was fit compared to the four VKs, and fully fed and well-rested. He was fully healthy compared with everyone else on the isle. Carlos couldn’t see the man’s eyes, covered as they were by sunglasses, but he felt the man’s gaze on him anyway. Carlos grabbed Evie’s hand again, and she squeezed his hand back. 

“Are you the kids that are coming over to Auradon?” The man’s voice was absolutely bland, leaving no room for warmth of any kind. 

Evie was the one who spoke up Carlos’ surprise. He would have thought that Mal would answer, as she usually was. “We are.”

The man hummed. “There are only supposed to be three of you.” 

Carlos could almost physically feel the man’s gaze weighing heavily on him. It was obvious between the four of which one was not supposed to be here, and everyone knew it. 

“We would like to request that Carlos come along with us.” Evie’s voice was firm, and Carlos was warmed by the fact that she was so sure that she wanted him with them.

The man stared at them for a second, before shaking his head. 

“That isn’t possible. I came here for the kids of Maleficent, the Evil Queen, and Ja’far. Not any other kid.” The man’s voice had dropped a couple of degrees colder than it had been before, and Evie squeezed his hand again.

Carlos’ heart dropped. It looked like they would need to go with his plan, unfortunately, but at least they had planned for this.

He looked up to Jay, catching his eye, and they shared a nod. It was time. 

Evie turned to him, and clutched his hand in between both of hers, as they shared a long look. They had already said their goodbyes earlier, and so this would have to do. After all, isle kids didn’t show attachment if it couldn’t be helped. After a few seconds passed, she squeezed tightly and then let go. He turned to Jay, sharing a nod with the older boy, any other words or emotions that had been for this moment already shown this morning as well. Finally, he looked at Mal. Her eyes, fierce as ever, met his and flared green for a single moment before she nodded slowly. He nodded back, and then watched as his friends threw their stuff into the trunk of the car, and then got into it without a backward glance at him. 

He stood there as the man got back in, sparing only a single glance back at him, before slamming the door. He watched as the engine started up, and the car pulled away, the barrier opening up once again to let them through.

He stood there alone as the barrier closed up after the car, and he had never felt more alone than at that moment. 

Then he turned and _ran_. 

And he didn’t stop running for a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next week: UMA!!!!


	11. The Letter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A shorter chapter, but school is really picking back up again!
> 
> As always, thank you for reading, and please let me know if there are any mistakes!

Then he turned and  _ ran _ .

And he didn’t stop running for a long time.

He was correct to some degree, unfortunately.

As soon as he turned around to run, he saw Jasper and Horace lurking in the shadows, though he didn’t know why they had waited this long to grab him. Maybe it was because the car could still stop and the rest of the rotten core could have stepped out of the car to help him.

Maybe because they were hoping to surprise him, when he was standing there, feeling freshly abandoned, maybe because they wanted to wait until Maleficent was clear of the area, even if she probably would have done nothing to stop them anyway.

In any case, Carlos immediately hightailed it out of there, his dog tail bobbing along behind him as he sprinted, and then climbed up the side of a building, nimble as he always was. He might not be the strongest, but he was fast and could slip into small spaces that grown-ups couldn’t fit into.

Behind him, he could hear his mother’s henchmen cursing as they tried to catch up with him, scrambling to get to him and bumping into each other. As long as Carlos could stay ahead of them, and constantly change directions and slip into alleys and confuse and avoid them, he should be good. He had a plan to go to a small abandoned house on the edges of the isle, very close to Uma’s territory, but also far away from Uma’s main base and Hell Hall. Rarely anyone went out there because it was smelly and the whole area was rotten.

It wasn’t Carlos’ favorite place, but overall, he did enjoy it. It was a bit colder than his warehouse, but he did make the plan to go there before this happened, so he had a couple of items stored away there, because he had planned to hide there for a few days to avoid the inevitable results of some of the most powerful people, well kids, leaving. Carlos didn’t think that Uma would expand her territory on this side of the isle too much, as there was almost nothing there and Mal had never really fought that hard for it. This was the one weird area that belonged to both, but nobody ever went to.

Carlos dodged a thrown item and then dropped down into the market below, pushing past people before jumping into another alleyway, and then ran through a house, in through the window, out the door, with the owners shouting at him. He ignored them and kept moving.

It felt like he was running forever as he ran in circles around the main area of the isle, getting Horus and Jasper as confused as possible to his whereabouts, but eventually, he decided enough was enough and split off from the market and climbed back up on the rooftops, running along them lightly and quietly so he could reach his goal.

With nobody in his way, nor a bunch of things, Carlos made quick time of getting to his hideout, circling the place twice, looking for potential break-ins or just people around, before he slipped inside through a window, climbing up the stairs so he could reach the top. The floor here was even more rotten and creaked every time he walked over it, close to breaking, but that was what made it valuable.

Carlos was light enough that he could walk over the floor with only creaks and groans from the boards, but anybody heavier would probably fall through the floorboards, as well as alert him with all the sounds that the house-made.

Sighing, and preparing for a long wait, he pulled out his notebook, the one that had the detailed images about the machine to break the barrier. He had some basic items here to tinker with to get it started, so he pulled his bag towards himself, ruffling around inside it until he found the parts that he was looking for.

And then he sat there, time useless, time non-existent.

He didn’t notice when the light outside dimmed when the only light he had was a lamp that was burning low. His eyes strained in the darkness but he ignored it to continue making the base to his machine. He wouldn’t fail the others, and when he made a deal with Uma and hers, he wouldn’t fail them either. He would get them all out of here if it was the last thing he did.

After all, Carlos didn’t want to die on the isle.

Eventually, Carlos woke up, blinking at the muted light in his new hideout. He wouldn’t say that it was bright, per se, as clouds always covered the sun on the isle, but it was bright enough that he could tell that it was around noon, the day after his friends left.

He must have fallen asleep while tinkering, not an unusual experience for him, but in the past couple months, he had woken up in more comfortable positions when the others had moved him to his bed or the couch, so he would not have a sore neck when he woke up. Like he had now. Ouch.

Carlos stood up and stretched, letting out a big yawn, hearing a couple of small metal objects fall to the floor. He heard a couple of pops from his bones, but he ignored those and then slouched down into a more comfortable position, tilted his head to each side so he could stretch out the stiffness.

He had slept decently, for all that he was alone and didn’t have a mountain of blankets that he liked to sleep with at the warehouse. He hadn’t dreamed or had woken up only to go back to sleep multiple times.

Looking around, he collected the tools and bits and bobs strewn about the floor and pushed them into a pile next to his bag. Today, and probably tomorrow, he would be staying here, and not leaving unless someone came in here.

Plan Lay Low was a go.

He spent the rest of the day doing more work on the base of the machine or sketching out new ideas in his journals. He only went downstairs to take a piss, but otherwise stayed upstairs, with the rotten floorboards as protected. He had food in his bag, not very much, but nothing that would go bad, and enough water to last.

All in all, even though he didn’t have anyone here, the two days passed quickly and quietly, and somewhat peaceful.

There had been a few close calls, with people running through the house, or walking near it, but nobody had been up the stairs or had noticed him, so he stayed where he was.

What did worry him though, was that he was yet to receive a call from Evie, Mal, or Jay.

He felt like he was left in the dark. Maybe they were being guarded, so they couldn’t call him, maybe their communicators had been taken away (a small voice in the back of his head, that sounded like a frightening mix between Cruella and Maleficent suggested that maybe they had forgotten about him already, maybe they had been to Auradon and see how much better they could do. Carlos tried his best to ignore those voices).

The worst part was, was that he couldn’t continue with his plan until he had gotten word from them. Or, well, he could, after all, the barges could bring the items he needed over, but that could take months, or years. So it would be better to wait until he could confirm that he would be getting the parts, before he approached Uma, to prove that he had a solid plan for getting out of here, for protection.

And so, Carlos, not for the first time in his life, waited.


	12. Uma

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was fun to write!
> 
> Also, over 800 hits! Over 80 kudos! 14 bookmarks! Thank you all so much!!!!
> 
> And as always, if you spot a mistake, please let me know, as this is unbeta'd and I am writing this when I am usually tired from school, so I hope it comes out somewhat coherent.

By the end of the week, Carlos still hadn’t heard from his friends. 

He had left the house a couple of times, mostly to grab more food or water or gather some gossip. As he had thought, Uma and her crew had taken over most of Mal’s territory, and Harriet and the Gastons had taken over the other part of it. There had been a couple of mentions of him, though most of the speculation of where he had gone. Nobody had bothered him in his little hut, just like he knew they wouldn’t, so things had been very quiet on his end. 

Which was bad and Carlos was starting to _Panic_.

He hadn’t heard a single whisper about his gang. From his gang. 

Had their communicators been taken away? Where they under a lot of watches and unable to use their communicators in fear of getting caught? Had they got caught and were now suffering from no one coming to rescue them because only he really cared?

(What if they had forgotten him? Carlos told the voice in the back of his head to shut the fuck up).

In any case, it was probably past time for Carlos to get out of this house. He wanted to go to the warehouse, and check if it had been ransacked, and if not, then he’d probably try to bring some stuff back with him to his old treehouse because he knew that by now, that the area around the warehouse would be swarming with his enemies, which could make it difficult to get in and out unseen. He’d need to be careful. 

So in the night, he snuck out.

Sure, they were an isle of villains, some who work primarily at night, but the streets were generally pretty empty as most were inside, partying or plotting or what have you. Carlos was glad of that fact, as he snuck through, climbing up to the roofs or hiding behind various items in the alleyways whenever somebody passed by. He often checked behind him, cautious to the extreme, but well, he needed to be. 

He shuddered to think what would happen if someone caught him. In this case, scary as it was, Uma was probably the best option because he had been planning on talking to her anyway, but everyone else was bad. Cruella was probably the worst one though, so he made a wide circle around Hell Hall, knowing that he would be back by the end of the night if all went well.

Thank Evil, but eventually, he made it to the warehouse, scuttling up the hidden entrance to the cold, dark, and empty hideout. It seemed bare without his friends, even if the murals were still up, even if items lying around, forgotten by the others. He smiled morosely and kept his steps light as he wandered inside, not turning on any of the lights. At this time of night, and at this location, it would be a beacon. 

And then, without him touching a switch, a light went on. 

Carlos’ head shot up and immediately met the fierce brown eyes of Uma, daughter of Ursula. 

Of course, she wasn’t alone.

Harry Hook and Gil were with her, Harry, sitting on the arm of the old couch (Carlos didn’t know how he wasn’t falling off, because it definitely wasn’t stable, and Carlos had tried to balance on it before and had fallen off), and Gil standing behind the couch, his smile wide in a different way than Harry’s or Uma’s. Harry’s smile was normal, well, predatory, so normal for him, and Uma was smirking like the cat got the canary. Gil just looked friendly, like he usually was when he wasn’t angry. 

“‘Ello puppy,” 

Carlos was now sitting on the couch, across from Uma, with Harry’s hand on his shoulder. Harry had stood up and ushered Carlos his current position, and Carlos, Carlos had gone along with it out of fear.

He knew he couldn’t win in an outright fight with Harry. He was taller, and stronger than Carlos and had both his sword and his hook. Not to mention Gil was waiting on hand to help if Carlos did something, and Uma was in a class of her own. He stood no chance and everyone in the room knew it. 

“So, pup,” Carlos hated how they called him pup. It was nothing like how Jay or Mal would address him as the like sometimes. They addressed him with fondness and it was a nickname, but when Harry or Uma called him that, they sounded like Cruella. Mocking. Cold. Dangerous. And Carlos knew that if he brought up that issue to them they’d only laugh in his face. They didn’t care about him and they could beat him in a fight, so why would they need to listen to him? 

“What are your plans now that your protectors,” Uma sneered the word protectors, probably thinking of her rivalry with Mal, “Are gone? Are you going to go into hiding permanently? Or are you going back to being the sad little loner you were before?” She hummed after she was done, eyes staring into his soul. Harry’s hand tightened on his shoulder as if to encourage Carlos to answer Uma’s question, sooner rather than later.

He swallowed. 

On one hand, talking to Uma was the next part of his plan, but on the other, it was the next step of his plan, though only after he heard from the others. And he hadn’t heard from Mal yet, so he didn’t know what would happen next. He didn’t know if he had a solid proposal for Uma.  
He had to try though. 

To steady himself, Carlos took a deep breath, drew up his courage, and looked firmly back at Uma. He saw her eyes widen slightly at his bravery before her smirk settled more on her face. 

“Before they left, I made a plan.” He started slowly, keeping a wary eye on Uma’s expressions. This was a big step for the plan, as they were meeting ahead of time, unfortunately. He needed to go about this carefully, as he had no solid leverage yet. 

“A couple of months ago, I made a set of communicators for Mal and Jay, before I was part of their gang. After Evie and I joined, I made two more for us. Part of creating them was creating a hole in the barrier.” Uma lost her smirk, her eyes wide, and she drew in a sharp breath. 

“Break the barrier?” Her voice was curious, and her eyes cautious, like she couldn’t believe that somebody had managed to do the seemingly impossible. 

Carlos nodded. “It only lasted a couple of seconds and the device to do so was destroyed, but it was done. Haven’t you noticed that you can watch t.v? shows better now?” 

Uma nodded back, no longer smirking, but watching him with something dangerously close to respect. “Continue.” She ordered him. 

“They didn’t want to leave me on the isle, but we had no other choice, so I came up with a plan. They would bring their communicators, which I’m very sure works for communicating between somebody in Auradon, and somebody on the Isle of the Lost. I was going to send them a list of items I need for my next machine, and then they would send me the materials needed.”

“You’re next machine?” Uma narrowed her eyes, staring hard at Carlos. 

He swallowed again. Here it goes.

“I designed a machine to break the barrier. Not for long, or a huge break in the barrier, but…”

“How big?”

Here it goes. 

“Big enough for your ship to get through.”

Silence. Harry’s hand tightened on his shoulder again. Uma stared at him. 

The silence persisted for a short while, Uma not taking her eyes off of him. Carlos fought the urge to fidget. 

“Big enough for my ship…” Uma mused. “Were you planning on bringing me with my ship?”

Carlos answered without hesitation and immediately. “Yes. You and your crew.”

Uma nodded. 

“Does Mal know that?”

“Yes.”

“And in exchange for getting my crew and me through the barrier?”

“Same as my deal with Mal and Jay. Protect me until it’s done, and until you bring me to my gang.”

“Sounds fair. What’s the catch? If you were going to come to me for protection, why haven’t you yet?”

Fuck.

He drew in a deep breath. 

“Because I haven’t heard from anybody yet.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, sorry I've been away for a while, post-secondary school was kicking my ass for a couple of weeks, and then I went on a vacation, so I really haven't touched my laptop or ftdf,twbd for a long time, which is why this chapter is kind of rushed and shorter than I would have liked. In any case, Happy new year! 
> 
> This is just a short chapter, it felt right to cut it off where it was, so I'm going to go straight into writing the next one while I still have time!
> 
> It was brought to my attention that some of the chapters were messed up, and I went through it so hopefully, all those issues are fixed, thanks to Random_Fandoms02 for pointing that out!
> 
> Thanks for reading, and if you see something wrong, don't be scared to point it out! Constructive criticism is welcome!

After that, they went to Uma’s ship. 

Uma had been silent for a few seconds before she told Carlos to grab what he wanted from the warehouse and to stuff it in the bag that he brought. Carlos then spent ten minutes scuttling around, nervously trying to avoid the three on the couch, Uma’s eyes never leaving him whenever he entered their view. He felt like a mouse, under the watchful eye of a couple of cats.

It was an unwelcome feeling. 

When he was done collecting the items he had come for, some blankets that could be folded up, some of his tools, and a journal that he had hidden, he had cautiously crept out of his and Jay’s room to stand in front of Uma, Harry, and Gil once again. Uma nodded once at him, and then got up, walking past Carlos out of the room. Harry smiled at him, and came to stand at Carlos’ side, and gestured for Carlos to follow after Uma. He did.

Harry and Gal flanked him as they walked down the streets, and unlike when Carlos snuck to the warehouse, they were in full view. There still weren’t that many people about it because it was still night, but there were more people on the main streets than in the alleyways. 

Which lead to the questions of why the fuck was Uma at the warehouse in the middle of the night, as well as how the fuck did she get inside? Had someone from Uma’s crew observed how one of them, Jay, Mal, Evie, and him, had opened the door? Or had they guessed? After all, Uma was no idiot, and neither was Harry. Or had they climbed up the warehouse and had gotten inside that way? 

Carlos was tempted to ask, but he didn’t want to stir up too much trouble now when his fate rested in their hands. Maybe he would ask if they agreed to the plan and went along with it to get off the isle. 

First, he needed to survive what would happen next. 

Uma was sure to interrogate him about what he was going to do next, about the others not having contacted him. 

And Carlos… Carlos wasn’t really sure. Yeah, he would continue to search for parts to make his machine, and hopefully still make an alliance with Uma, even if it would take longer than it would before. Maybe he would try to call them if they still hadn’t by the end of next week. Maybe he could watch the t.v. to see if Auradon mentions something about them. He knows they have a news channel, he’s watched a little bit of it before. 

Evil, it felt like the walk was taking forever. Sure, he was pretty confident that Uma would agree to the alliance, at least with him, and make sure that he’s safe until he finishes making the device to get them through the barrier, but he was still nervous. 

Finally, they reached Uma’s ship. 

Carlos had only been there once or twice before, but never on it. He had sneaked near it to measure it, though that was as close as he’s ever been. He was wary of the number of potential crewmates that could be hiding on it. Uma’s whole crew could sleep on it for all he knew, which means that if this went badly, he definitely would not make it out of there unless he got supremely lucky. 

And Carlos has never been lucky.

He walked up the gangplank and took his first steps onto the ship. It felt smaller when he was on the deck. Though it technically was pretty small for a ship. When Carlos had done the measurements, he had noticed that, but on it, he really could tell. The Lost Revenge was maybe half the size of a normal pirate ship or ship from the navy from what Carlos had read, but here on the isle, it was the biggest around. It was almost a blessing for Uma that it was smaller than average because that meant that she could sail it with the crew that she had, which was also smaller than the usual size. 

The deck was mostly silent as they made their way across it, Uma waving to one of her crew members who obviously was on watch. The boards of the ship creaked and the gentle rocking of the ship made Carlos stumble a little as he got used to it. He could hear Harry giggling at his lack of balance behind him, but paid him no mind. They quickly descended down into the depths of the ship, Uma barely pausing to grab a flashlight out from her coat before going down the steeply pitched stairs. 

Carlos stared into the darkness, the light almost vanishing with Uma, and swallowed. It felt like he was being eaten alive, or digested by a giant beast, and Harry’s breath on the back of his neck just reinforced the feeling. Carlos quickly moved forward, grabbing onto the handrails for dear life, and tried not to fall down the treacherous stairs.

  
The lanterns in Uma’s room were freshly lit when Carlos stumbled into it. 

The time from the top of the stairs into Uma’s room felt like it took forever. He was pretty sure that Uma only grabbed the flashlight to help him, as neither Gil nor Harry needed it, traveling easily through the pitch-black corridor. Carlos had stumbled after the faint glow that is emitted from around Uma’s form, barely able to see where he was placing his feet. 

The dark hallway had seemed endless and Carlos was happier than he ever thought he would be on the Lost Revenge when he arrived at Uma’s cabin where the light was. 

The room was surprisingly lavish for a kid on the isle. There were some draperies on the walls, and there was a thick carpet covering the floor, which a dark mahogany desk sat. It looked like it had been fixed, at some point, like most things on the isle, but it was still beautiful and imposing. Uma sat behind it, on her throne made of coral, looking imposing in the flickering light of the lantern. 

Harry and Gil moved past Carlos to stand on either side of their captain, and as they all gazed down at Carlos, he steadied himself and stared directly into Uma’s eyes. 

Even if he was alone, and maybe abandoned, he would stand up for himself. 

He would get this deal, and he would be safe.


	14. Negotiations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the sketchy updates lately, I explained most of the reasons why in my last chapter, but here we are again. I am once again changing the update schedule to fit my timetable better, so I should be back on the Friday/Saturday/Sunday update schedule. 
> 
> On a happier note, this story is at almost 1k hits! With almost 100 kudos!! I love you guys so much, thanks for reading and the kudos and the comments! Your feedback is always appreciated and cherished!

Uma didn’t waste any time. 

“I want all the VK off the isle.”

That wasn’t shocking at all. Carlos had already accounted for that in his planning, so he just nodded. “Done.”

If Uma was surprised, she didn’t show it. She just gave Carlos a shallow nod before leaning back a bit in her coral throne. When she had first sat down, she had her elbows on her desk and had her head resting on her hands as she looked at him, sharp eyes flashing in the flickering light of her cabin. 

In the back of his head, Carlos let out a huge sigh, but he didn’t allow for it to show on his face. He needed to be serious, and not be intimidated by Uma. The latter was kind of hard, though not as hard as he had feared it to be. Apparently, spending months with the scariest VK, Maleficent’s own daughter, had prepared him to face down those who scared him with relative ease, which Carlos was glad about. 

“Are you sure that your device will work?”

“Yes. I know what I’m doing, and I know what I need. This will work.” It might be a bit close, maybe the barrier wouldn’t be tall enough, or last long enough, but Carlos was pretty sure that overall, it would work. Not that he would tell Uma that. Ever. 

“And you can still build this if your loser squad doesn’t contact you?”

Ouch. That was a painful reminder. Carlos nodded. “It will take me longer, but it can be done.”

“State the full deal.” Uma’s eyes drilled into him, seeming to pierce into his soul. This was it then, he guessed. He would state the full deal, and then Uma would accept or deny.

Taking a deep breath, he started. 

“I, Carlos De Vil, will build a machine that will create a hole big enough that the Lost Revenge will be able to sail through, with all the VK’s on it. In exchange, Uma, daughter of Ursula, Captain of the Lost Revenge, will protect me and help me gather pieces to make said machine, as well as take me with her when she crosses the barrier, and drop me off at a mutually decided on location. Do you agree to the full deal?” 

Carlos stepped closer to where Uma sat, meeting her eyes squarely. Slowly, she rose from her seat, and then spit into the palm of her right hand. 

“I, Uma, daughter of Ursula, agree to the full deal proposed by Carlos De Vil.” Carlos appreciated that she left out Cruella from his name, but he could be grateful for that later. For now, he spits into his right hand and reached out until the two of them were able to grasp the other’s outstretched hand and give it a firm shake. 

They had a deal now. 

Carlos was safe. 

  
Uma decided to set Carlos up with a bunk in the Lost Revenge, though for tonight he would be sharing a room with Harry so nobody had an unpleasant surprise when they woke up tomorrow morning. Carlos had tentatively agreed, unsure about sharing a sleeping area with so many people he didn’t know and sharing a sleeping area with Harry tonight. He had only ever slept in the same room as Evie, Mal, and Jay, and that was only after he trusted them. 

Even though he had a deal with Uma, he wasn’t sure that he trusted her crew. He wasn’t sure that he would remain unscathed. But he didn’t think that she would let him go back, not after she made him grab all his stuff. 

Carlos looked over to Harry, the other boy’s face arranged into a leer as he looked over the younger boy in a lascivious manner. He shuddered as he looked back to Uma. He did not think that Harry would touch him, but Harry’s flirting made Carlos uncomfortable, and both of them knew that. Uma just met his eyes and raised a brow, before getting up and passing the boys, murmuring a goodnight to them before vanishing into the darkness of the corridor. 

“Come on, pup,” Harry spoke up from next to the door, gesturing with his hook into the void that Uma had disappeared into. Carlos guessed that he had no choice, and nodded his head to Gil before walking over to the doorway, pausing to look at Harry, looking at him to lead the way. 

Harry turned, thankfully without a word, and lead the way, Carlos only knowing the way by listening to Harry’s steps. He stumbled a few times, catching himself on the walls, and then tripping over his feet. Eventually, though the journey didn’t feel as long the one to Uma’s meeting cabin, they arrived at Harry’s cabin. Carlos guessed that he had his own cabin, or maybe shared with Gil sometimes, because he was the first mate, and as the son of Harry Hook, he had sailing in his blood. 

Harry lit a candle, pulling out a lighter from one of his pockets from his giant goat, which he then swung onto a hook beside a hammock. There was only a dresser beside the desk in the empty room. Carlos guessed that the desk was empty and that the dresser was also fairly barren. To his surprise, there was a small porthole, though it was facing out to the dark sea so he couldn’t see anything from it.

There was a desk on the other side of the room, but no other hammock. Was Carlos supposed to sleep on the floor? He didn’t mind, it wasn’t anything unusual for him, he had slept on the floor of Cruella’s closet for almost his whole life, and then on collected blankets and pillows, scraps really, only when he had met Evie. He also had a blanket and some extra clothes that he could pad the floor with, or at least form some kind of pillow, that he had grabbed from the warehouse. 

To Carlos’ surprise, Harry got into his hammock without a further word besides a grunted out a goodnight, before seeming to fall asleep. The candle burned on the desk, as Carlos blinked in the dark room. Shaking his head, he walks lightly over to the door, closing it before walking over to an empty spot on the floor. He set his bag down, narrowing his eyes at it, before deciding that it would be a good pillow and that he would keep his jacket for warmth. 

He turned to the desk, breathed in deeper than usual, and then blew out the candle. The room was plunged into darkness, and he went to settle down on the floor. Carlos didn’t know if he would be able to sleep tonight though.

The rocking of the boat was unfamiliar, and the waves crashing into the hull seemed loud, as did Harry’s breathing. Every once and a while, the boat creaked, and he would hear murmuring. Carlos guessed that the normal cabin for most of the Lost Revenge’s crew was the room to the left of Harry’s room, and the soft sounds of people were probably from there. 

Carlos stared up at the ceiling, breathed, and thought.

  
Surprisingly, Carlos did end up waking the next morning. 

He was shocked that he actually managed to sleep, to fall asleep in a new area with an untrusted person, but he had. 

He woke slowly, eyes feeling as if they were glued shut, and his head felt heavy. As he was trying to wake up and rubbing his fists against his eyes, he realized that the room was silent. Sleepily, he turned his head, and he saw an empty hammock swaying gently with the motion of the boat. The room was surprisingly bright, granted that the only light came from the small porthole that he had glanced at last night. Sitting up, he could see that the door was mostly closed, with only a crack open. 

He could hear laughing and people talking loudly, further on in the ship, and a few voices from the room next to Harry’s. Shakily, he got to his feet, determined to find Uma or her seconds, to talk about the supplies he needed, and so that the crew knew not to attack him. He slung his bag over his shoulder, rolling them once before he headed for the door. 

The room was lit up as he opened the door, the voices louder than they had been a second ago. He guessed that the best place to find Uma was on the deck, and so he turned to the direction the sound was coming from and braced himself. 


	15. The Coronation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for over 1000 notes and 100 kudos!!!!

Carlos never did hear from any of his friends.

The months went on, he watched the T.V. for any mentions of them, but there were none. Occasionally he would take out his communicator and try to message them, but nothing happened. Some days when he had nothing to do, he would sit there with the communicator on, wasting precious resources, but he didn’t care, just trying to listen to anything.

He slept with the damn thing next to him, sometimes holding onto it tight as if it were a toy. The days when he did nothing were the days that Uma watched him with eyes that were filled with pity. 

After allying, he had integrated more or less successfully into Uma’s crew. Most of the time was spent creating things or working more on the device to get them through the barrier, but that only lasted so long, because sooner or later he would run out of the parts that he had to make it, and need to wait for the next shipment of junk to come in from Auradon. 

So he would hang out with the crew of the Lost Revenge. Uma never had him do any chores really, or anything like that, so he mostly talked to the others and fixed stuff around the ship. So far he had successfully made four heaters, one for Uma’s room, one for Harry’s, and two for the big cabin that the rest of them shared. 

Carlos had gotten a hammock in the corner of the shared room, close to the door. The rest of the room was open, though many more hammocks hung all over it. Big posts ran through it to support the deck, and that was where there were some lanterns, though Carlos luckily had one right above where he was sleeping, which came in handy when he woke up in the middle of the night to write down an idea. 

The others who shared the space with him were somewhat deep sleepers, luckily, and surprising for kids on the isle. He guessed it was because they were all together in a big group, and that came with some protection. They also probably trusted everyone around them, whereas Carlos was still cautious. 

Carlos didn’t go back to school when it started again, knowing that the others weren’t going to be there was too much for him. He also didn’t go back to Hell Hall again, though if he had any say in it, he would never go back there at all. 

Then the day came.

The day when there was a shattering sound, and Uma stumbled, grabbing the table next to her, and Ursala shouted something and there was a roar that sounded like a dragon. The world was different for a minute or two, Uma’s necklace glowing before it stopped all of a sudden and the world fell back into place.

The day where Carlos was just putting the final leftover pieces from the last shipment into the machine when one of Uma’s crew barged into Ursala’s Fish and Chips and yelled for someone to change to Auradon’s main news.

“It’s the King’s coronation and someone grabbed the fairy godmother’s wand!”

Oh shit. 

Immediately, Uma grabbed the remote from where it was lying on the floor, Uma having knocked it off when she grabbed the table to steady herself and turned it on.

It looked to be pure chaos, though confusingly enough, only to some degree. 

Everyone in Auradon was frozen where they stood, even as the room trembled around them, though that could just be the camera. Then a dragon swooped into view, and Carlos gasped, as did many others in the room. 

It was a huge beast, purple underbelly and black back, breathing fire and chasing…

Carlos’ throat seemed to close up. 

The dragon, who he now suspected as Maleficent, was chasing his friends.

There was Jay, darting across the floor, clad in red leather, fearlessly fighting alongside Mal, who he almost didn’t recognize in a pale purple. And then there was Evie, his first friend, looking bold and confident in a bright blue dress, beautiful and unrestrained. Carlos barely paid attention to the Prince fighting alongside them. He wasn’t the one that Carlos was watching.

And they were all there, and they had gained some weight and they were looking confident even as they faced down Mal’s mother, as the took the wand from her as the three of them stared her down and Mal cast a spell, that seemed to falter for a moment before the Prince laid his hand on Mal’s shoulder and the spell worked and Maleficent turned into a lizard and the people of Auradon were unfrozen and everyone and happy and Carlos…

Carlos wasn’t there. 

Carlos was in the Isle of the Lost, with a former enemy, left behind by those he considered his friends. Making something to get him and the other VK’s through the barrier so they could have the life that his old friends now did. So they could look happy and gain weight and not be hurt by their parents anymore. 

He wanted what they had. He wanted to be there with them. He wanted to smile with them, to celebrate their accomplishments together. 

But he couldn't.

They had forgotten him. 

Carlos only vaguely remembered running out of Ursula's Fish and Chips, and through the streets of the Isle. He needed to get out, he needed to hide and think and not cry in front of everyone. 

He needed…

He…

Carlos tore through his old backyard and up the ladder to his treehouse, a place that he hadn’t been back since he had been arguing with Mal and the others that they should go. 

Well, he had certainly gotten his wish for them to be happy, though he thought that they would remember him. He thought that they would contact him. 

He reached the top of the treehouse and climbed inside, crawling along the floor until he reached the corner where he used to sleep and collapsed there, curling up into a ball and laying there, before the tears started to fall. 

Back on the Lost Revenge, on Carlos’ hammock, his communicator beeped. 

“Uh, hey, Carlos. Um. I hope you’re okay. I don’t know if you saw what happened at the coronation. Well, now, I guess, Auradon trusts us. So we have our communicators back, they took them from us. In any case, please let us know if you hear this. I guess we’ll message you another time to try to talk to you. “


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, so there’s some mentions of child abuse and near-drowning in this chapter, please watch out for that. 
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading!

Carlos stayed curled up in his old tree fort for the next three days. 

Uma and her crew didn’t know where he was or didn’t care, so he rested, fitfully, in the silence. The first day, after Maleficent escaped the isle, and then her defeat, the streets were loud and there were riots. Carlos could hear the screams and yells from his hideout, but it sounded like it was coming through the water. 

Actually, drowning was a good metaphor for how Carlos was feeling. He remembered once, ages ago, when he was probably seven or so. Cruella had decided that her ‘puppy’ needed a wash, though he couldn’t remember the actual reason. She had filled the tub with water, and then when it was full, had taken Carlos, plucked him off the ground, stripped him of his clothes, and then plunged him into the tub. The water had been frigid and Carlos hadn’t been expecting the sudden bath, so when he went under, he panicked and flailed. He remembered Cruella’s laugh, as he was pushed back into the water again and again. When he was underwater, the laugh had been muted and distorted, but still freaky and horrific in a different way from her usual loud sharp laugh. 

That was how Carlos felt at the moment. 

As if the world had slowed down around him, to the point where everything was muted around him. 

Even his thoughts, usually so fast and always popping up, seemed to be gone in an endless cycle of hurt and abandonment, wondering how the first people who he had befriended and promised not to leave him, had left.

Carlos almost wished that he had never met them. 

Then, maybe, most likely, he wouldn’t have cared when they left the isle when they didn’t take the chance to free Carlos. 

He just didn’t want to care anymore.

  
“Have you heard any word from the pup?”

Uma sat at her desk in her ship, staring at her second. She hadn’t heard anything, hadn’t seen the pup since he ran out of her mom’s restaurant, and she had asked Harry to creep around and see if he could get some answers to where the boy had gone. 

She didn’t want to admit this, but she was a little worried about Carlos. 

He just seemed so… fragile. 

Sure, he was an isle kid, and when backed against a wall, he could fight, even if he preferred not to. (Oh, she has definitely seen some of the scratches that his opponents got if they tried to corner him, and there had been rumours that he had almost taken out one of the Gaston's eyes when they tried to attack him a couple of years ago) But he always seemed more breakable than the rest of them. 

Even when he was part of the core four, with two of the most dangerous VKs on the isle, even after he grew braver and faster and stronger with them, he still seemed like a stiff breeze would blow him away. She had been pleasantly surprised for the past few months when he had been in an alliance with her and didn’t back down from anything. He would avoid large gatherings of her crew, (she didn’t care about that, he had never been the most social), but when ordering her crew around to find the proper parts for his contraption, or just talking to her, he was brave. 

He’d look her in the eyes, make jokes, shoot back at her if she made a cheap shot, make her laugh. Over the past few months, they had bonded to her surprise, and she had grown somewhat fond of the little fucker. 

So when he had disappeared, and she wouldn’t admit it to anyone else but herself, she was worried. 

Harry shook his head. “No word about ‘im. It’s like he's completely vanished. Probably into one of those little bolt holes of his.”

Uma sighs. That’s what she thought would happen. 

“The boys may have something else though.”

Uma’s head snaps up and she stares at Harry. Something else? She gestured for him to continue. 

He nods. “Aye. You know that comm of his? Apparently, it’s been turning on and making some noise now and then. The boys haven’t touched it, and it’s buried under some of his stuff, so they can’t make out anything, but they thought that I should know.”

Could it be? Could the others finally be trying to communicate with Carlos back? 

She smiles. 

“Go grab it for me. I want to talk to the princess.” 

Harry cackles and leaves, and she can hear him stomping through the halls, his footsteps fading away as he gets further from her door. Uma leaned back in her chair, resting her elbows on the arms and steepling her fingers in front of her face. 

What would she say to Mal, or even any of the others if they picked up? Would she taunt them? Would she ask if they are still going along with the pup’s plan to get all the VK’s off the isle? Would she ask them if they knew where the pup would be hiding? 

And what about the pup? Would she ask Harry to put the communicator back after she used it? Would he even notice it was gone after he came back? Would he be grateful that it was gone when he got back? What would his reaction be to finding out that his friends may have finally contacted him, after months? Would they have a good excuse to make him feel better? 

Harry knocked on her door. Uma always knew when it was Harry there, as he knocked with his hook, which made an interesting noise when the metal clanged against the wood. 

“Come in.” 

The door opened, and Harry came in, hook in one hand, the other holding the small communicator that Carlos had made. Uma had a vague idea of how to use it, after watching the boy fiddle with it nervously, trying to contact his friends. She was pretty sure that you just needed to press a button on the top to turn it on and hold down the button to talk. 

The communicator was a small black device that looked somewhat like the cellphones that Uma caught glimpses of on t.v. and every time Uma saw it she was amazed. It was so tiny and delicate and it was amazing that it worked through the barrier. 

She pressed the button. 

“Hey, Princess,”


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry I didn't post for a while. I got super sick and needed to catch up on sleep and schoolwork. 
> 
> I'll also be honest, I am losing my passion for writing this. I started right after I watch the three movies, and read a couple of the books, but that was also when I had more time, and I was super into the fandom. Now I'm less into the fandom and I don't really have a lot of time. I also didn't plan any of the fic, so I was kind of writing it by the seat of my pants, which can be hard because I never know what I am going to write next. 
> 
> So yeah, I'm sorry this is so late, and I'm sorry that I'm debating whether or not to continue, and I would like to thank you all for all the kudos and bookmarks and comments! I've loved and cherished them all. 
> 
> I will try to post next week, and if I don't write anything, I will update the fic to say that I've stopped writing it, or it's on hiatus until I can try my hand at it again. 
> 
> Thank you, and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Carlos supposed that one day he would need to leave his treehouse, not to socialize or anything, but to at least get some food and more water. He had drunk some from a bucket that he kept under the hole created by his first barrier-breaking invention, but there hadn’t been a lot in the small bucket. His stomach has been growling and eating away at itself, but he had tried to ignore it but now it was physically impossible to ignore the pain. He had gotten used to being somewhat full, and as a result, he was unused to being hungry. 

He didn’t feel like crawling back to Uma and her crew, after what happened. 

He didn’t know if they would hold it against him. Would Uma still want to be in an alliance with him? He didn’t see why not though. Would she still want to protect him when half the isle would be out for his blood? Though if he hid and finished the device to get them through the barrier, then maybe he wouldn’t be that bad off. 

He groaned, and curled into himself tighter, holding his stomach as it groaned with him.

He needed food, and he needed it soon.

He slowly dragged himself to his feet, stumbling and placing his hand on the wall next to him to keep himself up. The last time that he had felt this weak was after his leg got caught in that trap and he had needed to drag himself to the treehouse with his mangled leg dragging behind him. Now he was dragging himself out of the treehouse to find help. 

Or well, find food and maybe Uma’s help. 

It was dark once again when he climbed down, and he was reminded of the week after_ they _had left and he had crept through the alleyways, first by himself, and then after Uma. The isle had too many memories, he needed…

Carlos needed to get off of the isle. It messes people up too much. 

Uma sat back on her chair, staring into nothing as she contemplated the conversation she just had. 

She didn’t know if she believed what Mal had said. The Loser had said that they had gotten their communicators taken away, though Uma didn’t believe that they couldn’t have sent something over, like a letter or something else significant for the pup to pick up. They could have done _ something _, especially because they must have known their pups, well, now hers, trouble with his self-worth. They should have known that he would start doubting them immediately, start doubting that they would actually come back for him. 

Uma smiled as she remembered how she had hung over the fact that Carlos had run off and nobody knew where he was. Mal’s voice had grown shrill and stressed when she had heard about that and Uma had cackled, even if she was worried too. 

They had gone back and forth for a while, insulting each other while she happily taunted the princess about how she had abandoned her supposed ‘friend’. 

She hadn’t let Mal know that they were searching for him, she had just let that fact dangle for Mal’s consideration. Which definitely grated on her nerves, but Uma couldn’t bring herself to care. The princess deserved it. If she didn’t know, then the girl who left him on the isle which was slowly killing them all definitely didn’t deserve to know. 

The rest of their conversation was Mal trying to convince Uma that she should search for Carlos, or give the communicator to him when he showed up. 

Uma had laughed and hung up on her.

She didn’t know if she wanted to give the communicator to Carlos. 

Sure, it would probably reassure him that he wasn’t purposely left behind, but he also was hurting and she needed to make sure he was alright. She needed to take care of her crew before she even started to worry about Mal. 

Sighing, she dropped her head back to the top of her skull was resting on the back of her chair. It wasn’t the most comfortable position, and she would need to move around soon, or risk getting a sore neck and back, but for now, she just closed her eyes and drifted. 

A little while later, there was a commotion outside her door, and she straightened up in her chair. She was a little drowsy, as she had nodded off a little while ago.

And what do you know, her neck and back were sore. She grumbled a little as she stretched, tilting her head around to try to get it back to normal. Then whoever was making a racket outside knocked on her door. 

“Come in.”

The door burst open and through it tumbled the puppy and Harry, tripping over one another as if they had been leaning on the door. And they were arguing, which was surprising because the pup didn’t often speak up against her second. 

In fact, they barely seemed to notice that she let them in. Harry was crowding close to Carlos, a hand on his back, clearly the one at fault for their bold entrance. Carlos looked terrible, dark bags under his eyes, which were red, most likely from lack of sleep and crying. He also looked like he needed a good meal, which sure, wasn’t unusual on the isle, but right now he looked especially worn down and in need of some substance. 

Harry probably knew that because he kept poking the younger boy’s ribs, and was loudly saying that he needed to eat. 

Uma threw back her head and laughed.

It was so good to be back together.

Mal stared down at the communicator sitting in the palm of her hand, her mind replaying the conversation she just had with Shrimpy. How dare she keep information about Carlos from her. She and the others needed to know he was there's!

Or was he?

Was he truly there’s if they left him behind, and had never tried to get in contact with him beyond a couple of times when they asked for their communicators back? Communicators made by him?

They truly hadn’t. 

In fact, she was sure that they had barely thought of him, once the initial week was over. They had gotten over his missing spot in their group very quickly, and had assimilated into the rest of the school easier than they thought they would. Sure, there had been the first bump at the family event where Audrey’s grandma had blown up at them for being the children of villains, but besides that, they had blended in with the rest of the students rather quickly. It had been easy for her and Jay to not turn to the side to talk to a small presence that wasn’t there, though Evie had had a more difficult time, then again she had known Carlos for the longest. 

But even she had been swept away eventually. 

She would spend hours designing new outfits for the other girls at the academy, and then she would go out on a date with Doug. 

And Jay was enjoying the attention that came with being a star player of Tourney, and Mal, Mal was spending hours with Ben, actual dates now that she wasn’t deceiving him. 

Carlos had… Carlos had slipped their mind. 

She regretted it. Oh, did she ever regret it. 

Only after her mother’s attack, when they were all sitting around, did Evie bring it up. 

They had all been lying in her and Mal’s room, Ben and Jay had been there, and they had been lying across their big beds, when Evie had sat straight up, startling the rest of them when she had blurted out the youngest boy’s name. 

Mal and Jay had exchanged an “oh shit” look, while Ben had just looked confused. 

Quickly, they had filled him in on their plan to get Carlos and the other VKs across. Ben, the fabulous and kind boyfriend he was, had immediately agreed to grab at least one of their communicators. 

Which had led to the current situation.

Mal, sitting alone in her room, worried about Carlos. 

“Shit.”


	18. The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys. This is going to be the last full chapter of this fic. 
> 
> Thank you so much for leaving kudos and comments and bookmarking, they have made me feel so happy, and so much more confident in my writing. I wish for your sake that I could have finished this fic as you guys deserved, but I just don't feel passionate about it, or the fandom anymore. 
> 
> I'll put the epilogue at the end of this chapter which is a brief summary of what would have happened after.
> 
> Once again, thank you so much for everything. It means everything to me.

Carlos noticed his communicator missing pretty much right away when he went to look through his stuff when Uma and Harry let him out of their eyesight for a couple of seconds. 

The two had stuck to his side pretty much since Harry had found Carlos wandering back from his treehouse, trying to avoid anyone, not on Uma’s crew. He was pretty lucky, Carlos thought that one of the Gastons had spotted him, but then Harry appeared to swoop him away and back to the Lost Revenge. Then Harry had dragged him to Uma, and then the two of them had dragged him around with them, until a few minutes ago, where he was able to go back to his hammock. 

They had fed him though, which Carlos was grateful for because he had been really hungry. 

The communicator hadn’t been there though. He knew exactly where he had left it, and his stuff was barely touched (he wasn’t surprised, this was Uma’s crew and he had her favour along with a way to get off the isle, the crew was practically welcoming to him), so he knew that somebody had been targeting his communicator. 

Carlos had asked the kid who slept closest to him if he knew if anything happened, or if his stuff had made any noise. He had nodded and told Carlos that Harry had taken something from his stuff a couple of days ago. That the Captain probably had it. 

So now Carlos was stuck. 

Did he go to Uma and ask for his communicator back?

Did he go to Uma and ask if she had talked to Mal or any of the others? 

Did he want to know if the others had messaged him? Did he want to hear what they would say? Were they even the ones to call Uma, or did someone else tries to use the communicator?

Carlos didn’t know what to do. 

He was curious, that was a for sure, but did he truly want to know? What if it hurt him even more? What if one of them had betrayed their original plan and Auradon was going to put a stop to their escape? 

So he decided to say nothing. If Uma wanted to bring that up, then she would. 

Carlos would keep building his device. If Uma told him to stop, then he would, but until then, he would try his best to get all the VK’s out. 

Neither Harry or Uma brought up the communicator for the next few days, which he was grateful for. And as the weeks continue to go by, and Carlos continues to build and Uma and Harry protect their territory and as nothing changes on the isle, he lets himself forget it. He doesn’t focus on being left behind, or the ceremony, or Cruella. He doesn’t focus on how he was born in the wrong body, or how others see him. He doesn't go to school, he doesn’t need to, he’s smarter than most of the teachers and the subjects don’t interest him. 

Carlos just focuses on his machine, because right now, that is all that matters to him. 

And for a while, that is enough.

Then one day he hears it. 

It’s his communicator. It’s beeping. And the beeping is coming from Uma’s office, which he knows that she isn’t in. She and Harry are out at Ursula's Fish and Chips, working and terrifying people, whatever they do on the days when they’re not on the Lost Revenge. 

Should he get it? 

That would be invading Uma’s space, but she’s not there right now, and she (or Harry) did it first when they took the communicator from him. It was his, he had built it for his use, and he knew his way around all the buttons. 

But did he want to answer it? 

What if it was one of his old friends on the other end, or someone from Auradon, just fooling around? 

The communicator beeps again. 

The beeping seems to be very loud in Carlos’s ears, but that might be because it’s been months since he heard it, and it used to mean something so important to him. Because it was a sound meaning that his ‘friends’ were trying to contact him, that he wasn’t left behind. 

For a second, he could almost imagine that he was back in time, where the communicator would beep almost every day, and the beeping meant that he would be seeing his best friend and two other people he trusted to protect him. It meant safety and warmth, friends and relaxing. 

Now he wasn’t sure what it meant. 

Did it mean betrayal?

Or did it even mean anything at all? Did it have to mean anything?

No, it did not, and it would not. 

Carlos turned around. 

He would not answer the call, he didn’t want to talk to anyone else on the other end of the line. 

So he did what he never thought he would do. 

He walked away.

The Epilogue

Uma keeps contacting Mal and Ben, they figure out a way to get across, and they do so with Ben’s permission and using Carlos’ invention with the Lost Revenge. They sailed to Auradon, escorted by the Navy. Most of the children left the isle, a few stayed, but that was because they wanted to stay behind. The new children attend school and do well. Carlos tries to avoid Mal, Jay, and Evie, but they track him down to talk to him. They explained what happened. That their communications got taken away, and then they got busy and didn’t even really try to get in contact with him. They apologize, and Carlos decides that he can’t accept it right away, that he needs time. Eventually, they end up distantly friendly, but Carlos mainly hangs out with Uma and Harry. Carlos still gets Dude! I was going to make Jane a transwoman, and I was planning on them becoming good friends, and Jane helping Carlos with some stuff, like getting T. Carlos becomes one of the best-known inventors on Auradon.  



End file.
